


The Bonds of Brothers

by KRMalana



Series: Norsekink meme Fills [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Norse Mythology, Thor (Movies)
Genre: And then the Avengers decided to cameo, Angry!Brothers, Blindness, Bonds between Brothers, Brotherly Affection, Clueless!Thor, Community: norsekink, Complete, D'urden (OMC), F/M, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Fluff and Angst, Grandmama Bestla, Het, Imprisoned!Loki, Intersex!Loki, M/M, Male Slash, MotherBear!Frigga, Mpreg, Odin's A+ Parenting, baby boy! Malekith, m!Nanna - Freeform, m!Sigyn - Freeform, male!Nanna, male!Sigyn - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-08
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2017-12-28 19:12:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/995503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KRMalana/pseuds/KRMalana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Norsekink meme prompt:  http://norsekink.livejournal.com/12132.html?thread=29878372#t29878372</p><p>"Odin has five sons: Tyr, Baldur, Hodur, Thor and Loki.  When Loki is imprisoned in Asgard the first three brothers finally return to Asgard. They thought him dead but now their little brother is alive and they are damn well going to find out what the hell has been going on."</p><p>Mostly goes with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with touches from the comics as well as the original Norse Mythology.  Tyr is the eldest son.  Baldur and Hodur are twins; Hodur was born blind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Brother Lost, Brother Found

**Author's Note:**

> 6/26/2015 EDIT: Even though this work is complete, I've edited the tags to include the fact Loki is revealed as intersex in the last chapter. I didn't know I was going that route until the end and forgot to update it. Also, a recent commenter was extremely bothered by the fact that I genderbent Sigyn and Nanna to male, so I've added those tags as well. So if that's not your cup of tea.... back arrow?
> 
>  
> 
> Full prompt: 
> 
> Odin has five sons: Tyr, Baldur, Hodur, Thor and Loki.
> 
> When Loki is brought back to Asgard and imprisoned, the first three brothers finally return to Asgard. (They would have been too late to attend Loki's funeral, and so mourned wherever they were... also Odin may have omitted a few tiny details about his apparent death). But now, their little brother is alive and they are damn well going to find out what the hell went wrong with him. Their arrival is a shock to Asgard, and even more to Loki, who is suddenly bombarded by loud older not-brothers shouting protests at his being locked up and looking so unkempt and despondent. Then they start hearing things from different people, and patch up the story of what really happened. They're not particularly happy with any member of their family, but still can't picture Loki being evil.
> 
> Bonus for Hodur, the middle child and also possibly blind, understanding to some extent Loki's difficulty at being different and feeling unloved next to their golden brothers.

To not be given enough time to attend Thor’s coronation had been bad enough. They were the kings of their realms and, as much as they wished, they could not up and leave at a moment’s notice. Their father, Odin, should have known better but they believed, in this moment of change and fatherly pride, it had been accidentally overlooked. So instead the three eldest sons of Odin, Tyr and twins Baldur and Hodur, sent other things to make up for their absences. Gifts for Thor to be presented at the coronation as well as letters, from brother to brother, filled with memories and love and advice for the new king. So do they sent gifts and letters to their youngest brother, Loki. They missed him and knew what he might be feeling on that day. Hodur most of all. Out of all of them he was closest to the baby of the family, a bond forged in being not quite like the other brothers. There were invitations to come visit Asgard, or for Thor and Loki to come visit them. The brothers had been apart for too long and that needed to change. 

It was not to be. In the chaos that followed the jotun breaking into the vault during the coronation and what followed, the gifts and letters to Thor had never been presented. Forgotten as all things were on that day.

The letters and gifts to Loki had never made it past Odin. 

But then came the news of what happened on the Bifrost; just why the Rainbow Bridge had shattered and nearly halted all travel between the realms. The news was sparse and each knew in their gut something was wrong with what fell on their ears. The bridge was shattered. Their father had managed to grab Thor, but Loki had thrown himself and was lost to the places betwixt and between. Each and every brother went numb to the core, a sorrow unable to be put into words. A funeral was held for the youngest of their number and once more no time was given for the brothers to travel to Asgard. The fact was lost on the three. 

Loki. Dear, sweet, precious, little baby brother Loki.

Lost. Dead.

The Sun, under Baldur’s command as the God of Light, dimmed across Alfheim and all the realms. The light that shone from him would not shine. He mourned for Loki and all his people mourned with him. He had been such a light to him. His mischief and tricks had always brought such joy to Baldur. No matter what Loki had done, it always managed to bring a smile and a life from the older boy. A tiny smile tugged at his lips when he remembered what the boy had done to Sif. When she had so cruelly broken Baldur’s heart, rejecting his deep first love, mischievous little Loki had snuck into her home and shorn her beloved hair. He had laid it across Baldur’s pillow as a gift and the laughter had burst out of his light brother. They had laughed, Loki and him, before he managed to whisper that, as much as he enjoyed the gift, doing such a thing really wasn’t all that nice to her. Sheepish, but pleased that Baldur had gained some happiness from the gift, Loki finally admitted he was right.

The Moon, under Hodur’s command as the God of Darkness, hid her face utterly across Svartalfheim and all the realms. He wept bitterly, his sadness the deepest of sorrows. The tears that shed from his cheeks did not fall to the ground, but rose to the dark heavens as new stars in Loki’s memory and honor. He mourned for Loki and all his people mourned with him. They had been close, the long suffering middle child and the baby of the family. Truthfully, the two were so much alike that, if Loki had been older, it would have been he and Hodur mistaken for the twins amongst the brothers. They had the same dark hair and quiet disposition compared to their brothers’ bright hair and boisterous personalities. And it was Loki who treated Hodur just like any other man and did not care that he had been born without sight in his eyes. He did not coddle him, treat him as a fragile thing to be protected from others and from himself since he could not see.

There was another difference that wove the brothers close. Their magic. It had been born in Hodur, deep and wild, racing through him like the thunder and lightning raced through Thor. In the realm of warriors, the secretive and unknown seidr made Hodur as much as an outsider as his blindness. Hodur let out one little happy sigh, sitting by the window facing Asgard with the scrap of Loki’s baby blanket traced by his seeing fingers. He remembered the day he had first been allowed to hold the new baby. The way their mother’s handmaidens had set him in his arms and their twittering instructions, fearful that he would drop him. He had felt the same flow in baby Loki, the infant magic reaching out to his own, and knew they were the same. Hodur had kept his awareness on Loki, weaving runes of protection around him, so that when it appeared it would be his older brother who knew of his magic and not someone who would cast shame on him. It had been he who taught the youngest seidr and rune-weaving, so he would not have fight with his magic through his childhood. Loki’s first spell had been a ball of fire birthed from a candle in Hodur’s room. One that had gone haywire and blasted the glass pitcher of water on the table beside them, melting the shards into contorted little pieces.  
Hodor wore one of the pieces always, set as a ring on his finger.

Tyr, the God of War, did not have powers over heavenly bodies as the twins did. He could not make them mourn or hide their faces. So he did the only thing he knew he could do. Across every world, in each of the nine realms, Tyr held a moment of peace. No war. No fighting. No anger or strife. Loki had not liked battle as the rest of them, had not longed for the adrenaline or fighting for its own sake. Loki had loved words. Loki had loved working to make sure there was no need for battles, listening to the words of each side and finding a way to prevent bloodshed. Diplomacy, compromise, making people listen. Tyr knew it wasn’t much but he knew Loki would have smiled at the gesture and shook his head fondly at his eldest brother. Tyr sat on the steps of the palace of Helheim, looking out to his realms of Niflheim. He had just grown the hints of his first beard when Loki had arrived. He had thought him such a tiny thing. Had Thor been that tiny as a baby? But he had fallen so much in love with the sweet face and the brightness in those green eyes. And he had thrashed any being who dared even think of laying a finger on his baby brother. 

And then the thought hit Tyr. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? Why hadn’t any of the brothers thought of it before? In fact, now that he knew of it, why had not Father Odin and Mother Frigga not marched here in the first place? Was his wife not Hela, Queen of the Dead? Surely she would search out his brother’s specter. Surely she would permit him to return to the realms of the living. She had been fond of him as well, had known him through Tyr’s many stories. She had been waiting for the day that Loki might visit and had made it so another of the living could pass into her realm safely. 

“Dear wife!” Tyr asked as he approached her. “Do you know where in your halls my brother Loki rests? Surely he must be here somewhere…” But as he spoke, he watched her face. Her lovely pale face, so impassive and unmoved except for precious moments shared between the two of them, trembled. She turned away, pain obvious, lips drawn thin. And when she spoke, Tyr knew why.

“I have searched for him, for how could not even I feel the love you four hold for him. But Loki is not here. He is not among the dead.”

Tyr felt all the strength go out of him. His towering form, his burly mass, trembled like a blade of grass in the wind. Loki was truly dead and was not even in Helheim. And the space betwixt between the realms had stolen him forever. His hand clamped over his mouth as he felt the bile rise in his throat. His body was grieved ahead of his mind which fought through the numbness.

Then Hela laid her cool hand on his arm. She made it drop, held his face in her hands and forced him to look into her grey eyes. “I believe Loki is not dead at all. He is still alive.” Tyr stared at her. His mind burned to life now and realized what she meant.

He turned to race towards his realm. 

Tyr needed to speak with his brothers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I can totally see my own experiences as an older sister peeking through. I'm very protective of my younger brother, no matter how much he annoys me. And since I'll be unlikely to have children of my own due to PCOS, I've formed bonds/adopted a good number of people as more brothers and sisters XD
> 
> The first four sons were born to Odin by Frigga. Loki is the adopted son of Laufey as in the movie. As much as I can see spots of good parenting from Odin in the movie, his A+ Parenting shows here. Due to/influenced by the horrific levels shown in the original mythology (has a son slain, births another son just to slay that one, etc)
> 
> Tyr, the eldest, is the God of War. Tall, burly, with red hair and beard.
> 
> Baldur, the second by only a few minutes. Twin to Hodur. God of Summer (light, sun, day). White hair, no beard, willowy.
> 
> Hodur, the middle child. Twin to Baldur. God of Winter (dark, moon, night). Born blind. Black hair, no beard, willowy. The only magic user of the blood children.
> 
> Thor, second youngest. God of Thunder. There is somewhat of a gap between the older three and him/Loki.
> 
> Loki, the youngest. Adopted, but just how knowledgeable of this all the brothers are is under question. The second magic user.


	2. Arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize now if Hodur and/or the relationship between Hodur and Loki overtakes the prompt a bit. Hodur is my favorite out of the mythology, and since he has the tiniest of roles in the older comics, I get my fix by writing about him.
> 
> Also getting the feeling that epic flashbacks of childhood adventures between brothers might be poking their heads soon.

Tyr managed to get his news to the realms of his brothers Baldur and Hodur. They each searched and managed to find a few scraps of news on the winds. There were whispers that something had happened on distant Midgard. Was that where their brother had fallen? Was Loki trying desperately to return home? Why had it taken Odin and Heimdall to discover Loki’s location?

It was Baldur who finally discovered the truth. Loki was, in fact, alive, and was indeed involved in whatever had happened on Midgard. But that wasn’t what shocked them. It was the news that Loki had been brought back to Asgard.

And imprisoned.

The news had not been sent to them by their father, Odin Allfather. The news had not been sent to them by their mother, Frigga. No, the news had not even been sent by the last member of the brotherhood, Thor. 

They had to hear it as gossip from Ratatosk, the squirrel who scurried up and down the World Tree.

A flurry of messages were sent between the realms. Plans were put into action, plans that had been planned and put into place since Loki’s funeral so that the three kings could now leave their realms quickly if need be. Then they finally moved between the realms, Tyr and Baldur, following ancient pathways deep within the branches of Yggdrasil to Svartalfheim. Reunited with Hodur they set out. To Asgard.

Heimdall saw them approach a ways off. But he made no move to stop them, nor to alert his king. A few feet before him were the slow moving repairs to the Bifrost. Hundreds of men and women had toiled to repair that few bit of feet. Behind him were the skeletal pieces of the Lookout, ready to be moved into place once enough of the Bifrost was repaired. But also before him were the approaching three eldest sons of Odin Allfather and Frigga. Hodur strode in front, hands moved side to side as he walked, and behind his bare feet sprung the bridge between all realms, the Bifrost, reformed as if it had never been shattered in the first place. His mouth did not move. It did not need to. His magic was great enough that he needed no spoken word to command it. 

When the three arrived they made no words or acknowledgement of the Guardian. Hodur strode past wordlessly and behind him followed Tyr. Heimdall averted his gaze. If his king asked if he had seen them answer, his truthful answer would be no. Baldur came last, and when he was a few paces past Heimdall he paused, then turned. Planting himself right in Heimdall’s gaze, his own bright eyes burning, he spoke. “I will come later. And you will tell me all that you heard and seen at that time.” Then, he left.

And Heimdall did not need to be told of exactly what the Second Prince of Asgard, now King of Alfheim, meant.

~*~*~

Loki jumped as a great rumble shook all of Asgard. It reached down even here, to the depths of the prisons. The distant, other prisoners jumped in their cells. The guards cast worried looks to the stones above them and amongst themselves, wondering what it could be. Loki knew, eyes growing wide, exactly what it was.  
Something pummeled against the very gates of Asgard. The gates held for only a few precious seconds, and then with a long aching groan the gates were torn from the walls. The earth quaked and jolted as the gates were tossed away. He could feel him from even down here. And, really, who else could it be? Everyone knew about the fun, loving good nature of Thor, but they also knew the great wrath of his rage once his patience had worn thin. Tyr skipped every stage and went straight to rage. 

Loki forced his eyes down, to go back to boring into the nondescript wall opposite him. He would not allow them to mock him. He would not allow the man who claimed to be his father take another thing from him.

~*~*~

Asgard stared on in complete and utter silence. The loud streets were still. Quiet. People stared at the three men who walked down the streets. The first three princes of Asgard. The three eldest sons of their king. Tyr. Baldur. Hodur. There had been no word of their arrival. There had been no announcement spread throughout the city to prepare for their arrival. Shocked was the only way to explain it. Especially when the people saw the looks on the faces of the three brothers. They wisely let them be, quietly moving out of the way so they had a straight shot to the palace. 

Many who had watched the brothers grow from young children, or had siblings of their own, knew not to mess with them. 

~*~*~

Green eyes found themselves looking at the ceiling. There were sounds that made their way even down here. Muted, mostly intelligible. Yet down here, with his magic locked away from him, he knew not what went on. Exposed. Undiscerning. His fingers twitched. The words were unconsciously forming on his lips before he remembered, felt the empty draw where his magic had been. They dropped back to his lap. Useless. His head lulled against the stone.  
Then the shouts started coming down the stairs.

Voices would rise, in alarm and warning, then struck silent. Thuds followed. Silence. The sound of bare foot falling against stone. Loki only glanced up. Sharp words formed on his tongue. Silver, cold, cutting things. But then the form appeared and the words left him utterly. The man suddenly within sight beyond the golden tinge of the wall that held him captive. 

The darkest black of hair with hidden shades of the deepest blue. It was long, cascading, brushing only a few inches from the floor. Dusky skin, mostly covered by dark blue robes embroidered with silver-white thread. Feet that were always bare so he would never be separated from the earth beneath him. Dark eyes in which the black irises bled out into the rest of the orb so no white was visible. There was something there in the unblinking eyes like stars shining out from a great distance. 

“Hodur…” The name escaped Loki in a tiny whisper. Unbidden a tiny whimper escaped him as his arms rose. Wanting, searching, a small child reaching out for his brother.

Hodur never even paused in his journey. He strode across the room and walked right through the barrier to his prison. The same barrier crafted to keep all prisoners in and visitors without, woven strand by strand by the Allfather. A barrier made to be impervious to magic and physical attacks both. Loki was without the first and he had tried the latter. It had no effect on Hodur. It parted like he was passing through water. The barrier tried to hold him back, tendrils attaching to his form, but they only thinned and snapped.

Then…and then…

Loki found himself caught up in Hodur’s arms. No hesitation. No words of anger or rebuke. Just the cool warmth of his form and the reassuring pressure of his arms. The thought suddenly came to Loki that with all his growing Hodur was still a bit taller than him. He buried his face against his neck. In turn Hodur buried his face in his father. “Loki…” the older man sighed happily. 

Someone in the distance was making a noise. A horrible, broken sound. It was the sound of weeping. And it was coming from him Loki realized.  
He buried himself deeper in Hodur’s arms, trying to hide from everything and nothing. Hands twisted against the man’s back. Desperate. Refusing to let go. There was shuffling outside the prison followed by heavy footsteps. Thru the bleary sight clouded by tears Loki saw a flash of white and a burning of red. Baldur’s hair. Tyr’s hair.

His brothers were here.

His brothers were with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If it wasn't that plain to people:
> 
> Tyr is King of Niflheim and his wife/queen is Queen Hela of Helheim (the two seem either the same realm/lands over very close together)
> 
> Baldur is King of Alfheim (since Light Elves and the God of Summer/Light/Sun/Day kinda go together)
> 
> Hodur is King of Svartalfheim (since Dark Elves and the God of Winter/Dark/Moon/Night kinda go together)


	3. Prisoner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers begin to see that something has changed in their baby brother. 
> 
> Also an unexpected amount of exposition unfortunately needed to set later things up.

The young magic user could only stare at the visitors around him.

Hodur had quickly opened a way into the prison cell and now the three men had crowded into the simple cell. He sat on his cot, Baldur on his left and Tyr on his right. Hodur sat in one of the two chairs, pulled close so that their knees almost touched. The green eyes looked about him and took in each one in detail.

Tyr was still very much the same. He had nearly been a man when Loki had arrived and so, in his eyes, had always been a man like Odin. He had fiery red hair and it was a shade that went with his nature. He was about the same height as his father and the same burly build. Loki glanced down at Tyr’s hands. They were meaty, massive things. But he remembered how strong they were. Wielding his axe or throwing a push. Held out gently as Loki walked his first steps. He looked back up to the grey eyes that were the same grey as his mother. He noted that the beard, once long and wild, was shorter now and neatly trimmed. 

Ah. Yes. Tyr was married now. Years ago he had rode out to wage war on Niflheim and the primordial creatures that lived there. He had conquered the realm but word was when he had come to the border with Helheim he had taken one look at its queen, fell to his knees, and asked her to marry him. His crown was a battle helm, intricately wrought, sitting now between his feet. 

Tyr saw Loki studying him and threw an arm around him once. “I am so glad you’re alive!”

Oh joy. Tyr and the nonexistence of personal space around him. Loki allowed it for a few moments then poked him in the ribs. “You blubbering idiot, move over.” There was no bite to the words, only a sigh tinged with annoyance. And Tyr just grinned his stupid grin. He moved back but left the reassuring weight of his arm on Loki’s shoulders. And Loki did not shake it off.

“We are glad, Loki.” Baldur’s leg pressed against his followed by the pale hand grabbing his knee. “To be not given enough time to make it to the coronation…and then the funeral.” Baldur paused and forced himself to swallow. The pain of the memory was evident in his pale silver eyes. “Father sent word so late.,,”

“He does that,” Loki spate out. He waited for the hand to snatch itself away, but it did not. And somewhere, deep inside him, he was glad. Baldur was the elder of the two twins, born a few minutes ahead of Hodur. In contrast to his twin, and what people generally imagined a sun god to be, Baldur was all pale in color. His skin was pale and his eyes were a silver that at times was hard to distinguish from the whites. His hair, once long but now still falling past his shoulders, was pure white, down to the eyelashes curling over his cheeks. He was dressed in a long tunic and pants a bronze-gold in colour, with slim boots on his feet.

On his forehead hung a sunstone, his crown as King of the Light Elves in Alfheim. Baldur was married too, to the elf Crown Prince Nan’na. The two had met when Baldur had left for Svartalfheim to visit his twin who had recently arrived himself. The Light Elf Prince had been there as well, a diplomatic visit to welcome the new king of their sister realm. It was said that the two princes had seen each other and known they were meant to be together. Loki remembered how angry Odin had been, so filled with rage and dark oaths. Thor and he had been teenagers at the time but they had fled, fled like children, hidden themselves away and prayed he wouldn’t come after them. Both twins had left his halls and become kings. One would think that Odin would be pleased that now there were unbreakable ties between Asgard and two other realms. But he wasn’t.

Because both the twins had married men.

Dusky hands reached out and cradled his. Hodur looked on, eyes half lidded, but that was not how he saw. His thumbs brushed over every inch of Loki’s hands he could reach, rubbing circles around his knuckles. He had always seen through his hands and even now they rose up to touch his face. They cradled his cheeks and the thumbs swept over the bones. Growing up Hodur had made sure to always feel the changes in his brothers’ faces, to know it with their voices. “You’re so thin, Loki…”

The youngest did not answer. Instead his green eyes moved to the moonstone that hung from Hodur’s forehead, and the little moonstones dangling from his ears. It had been a party of some sort, a feast, back when the brothers were teens and young men. All the princes and princesses from all the realms had been invited. It was a claim from their parents that it was to foster relationships between the realms and get to know of others their same age and station. Loki had always had the feeling that it was their parents sampling just who they would like to marry to their sons. It had the unexpected consequence of introducing the middle son to Prince D’urden, the Crown Prince of the Dark Elves. Young Loki had not thought much of the meeting at first, only that D’urden had taken a genuine interest and friendship in his brother where many others pushed him away due to his blindness and magic. It was quickly revealed that it was more than a friendship when D’urden came courting. Courting Hodur.

Odin had done everything in his power to drive the male dark elf away. Polite and hinting at first, it had soon dissolved into outright anger and threats. Tyr had been angry as well and Thor had eventually joined his side. They snuck behind the scenes, trying tricks and schemes to drive the two apart. The two had come to Loki and begged for him to join them. Surely he could come up with a plan to turn the prince’s attention away from Hodur. But Loki had not. He hadn’t the heart. He saw what the others did not allow themselves to see: Hodur’s happiness. He had someone who loved him for him and not out of pity or blood. Someone who gave his love freely and would always be there for Hodur. Eventually, Hodur had left without Odin’s blessing to marry D’urden and become King of Alfheim, with the dark elf as his king-consort.

He still remembered how Hodur had snuck into his room before he left, to ask Loki if it was alright to leave. He had never admitted to anyone how much that simple question had meant to him. That Hodur might ignore his happiness and heart to make sure he was okay. He had told him to go, lips quivering, that things would turn out alright. Hodur had left. Then Baldur. Then Tyr. Soon it had been only he and Thor left. Teens, barely men, both going along with the forceful trainings to be king as Odin tried to decide between them. 

As he thought he missed the looks shared between the three brothers. Loki hardly seemed the brother they once knew. The brother always so ready with words and knowing smiles that promised secrets. And when he did speak now his words were brief, clipped, hurt and anger flowing beneath them. They all got the feeling that he did not allow the full force of his emotions because they were his brothers, and that they had not been present in whatever had happened.

Something had happened.

Something had happened, and they needed to know to figure out just what the hell had gone wrong in Loki.

But right now, so briefly past their reunion, was not the time.

They stayed with Loki in the cell, refusing to leave once the guards awakened from Hodur’s magic and demanded them to exit. A tiny smile played on Loki’s lips when his brothers ignored them completely and the threats the guards made. They gave up eventually and left, promising to return with Odin Allfather. No one returned. They visited quietly. They spoke of everything and nothing. And that Loki was glad for. The realization came to him that he had truly and deeply missed his brothers. But he could not speak it. Just as he could not speak of what he had done if they had asked it of him.

He couldn’t do it to them.

They spoke until Loki grew tired. It was always light in this place and so he slept whenever he felt like it. Which was often what with so little to do. He had figured his brothers would leave, go back up to the cozy palace above, but they didn’t. Without a word they camped out in the cell with him. Tyr stretched out on the middle of the floor. Baldur and Hodur sat on the floor side by side with their backs to a wall, leaning against one another. Each would not hear of Loki giving something up to make them more comfortable. 

And for the first time in a long stretches, since before Thor’s coronation had been announced, Loki slipped into sleep peacefully.

~*~*~

“Lo-kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~ Loooooooooooooooooooooooooo-ki~!”

Loki blearily jerked awake. There was a moment of wondering of what awakened him and then it was gone. He sat up, shoving his hair out of his eyes. He had swung his feet to the floor before he remembered he was not alone in the cell. Baldur and Hodur were half on their feet, faces turned to look over the table. Tyr was standing at the back wall looking out over the rest of the cells. In the cell across the walkway, one of its prisoner’s was up. He slammed his metal mug against the barrier and screamed taunts as loud as he could. A cruel smile split his face when he saw that his favorite fellow prisoner was now awake. “Hello pretty!”

Loki ignored him as he always did. Tyr, however, growled, slamming his own hands against the barrier. “You will keep your mouth shut!”

“Don’t trouble yourself,” Loki muttered as he drew the blanket around his shoulders. “It happens all the time. I’m used to it.” Tyr glanced at Baldur then at the dark circles under Loki’s eyes that had been there since they arrived.

“Aw~ Don’t want to talk to me today?” The prisoner continued. He reached down and grabbed himself, thrusting his hips forward. “I’d certainly enjoy ‘talking’ to you!”

“That’s enough!” Tyr shouted. He rumbled the stones with his command. The rest of the prison silenced but the man opened his mouth once more. Tyr yanked his helm from the ground and held it out to his side where he knew Hodur approached. “Straight across, slightly to the right, my height. Follow his voice.”

Without more instruction Hodur hefted the helm and threw it as hard as he could. It flew straight in front of him, arching to the right as it flew. It blew through the barrier of both cells and clanged loudly against the man’s skull. The last sound he made was the thump as his body hit the ground. With a wave of his hand Hodur summoned the helm back to him and with a brief touch he repaired the wide dent in it before silently handing it back to their brother. 

“There Loki.” Tyr turned to him with an easy smile on his face. “Your sleep shouldn’t be troubled any more tonight.” Their youngest brother said nothing and simply settled back against the cot. A few brief movements. The blanket moving as he burrowed deeper. Then, soft, barely heard, a tiny whispered “thank you.” 

Tyr waited until he knew Loki was back asleep then nodded to his brothers. Helm placed on his head he walked through the opening Hodur made and moved up the stairs. He knew the twins would stay behind to protect Loki and keep him company should he wake again. He waited until he was a distance away so that he wouldn’t be heard, then raised his voice. “FATHER!. I would have WORDS with YOU!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bits are taken from what we see of Loki's prison revealed in the Thor: The Dark World trailer. 
> 
> Another side note on the appearance/how I present the Light and Dark Elves here. We haven't really seen them in the movies so far save for the bit revealed in the second movie trailer. And I don't like the various versions presented in the comics. My elves here are more like Tolkien's elves in physical appearance with differences that led to the names Light and Dark. 
> 
> Prince Nan'na of the Light Elves is basically a male!Nanna, Baldur's wife in the original mythology. I have a mythos I created to have new stories for the twins since they have only about one each (will be posted here soon) which features both the elvhen princes. The Light Elves more resemble Tolkien's elves. Prince D'urden is a more original creation but is also named in honor of one of my all-time favorite male literature characters Drizzt Do'Urden by R.A. Salvatore. The Dark Elves also resemble his physically (black skin, white hair, with not so long ears).


	4. Part of the Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting to get close to the confrontations. And the detective work.

Tyr stormed around the palace to cool his head. If he returned to his brothers now he might loose it on them and that he could not afford with Loki’s condition. His father refused to speak with him. He wouldn’t even tell it to his face. He hid behind his study door and his guards. 

“You will have an audience later.”

“I would have it now!” Tyr had pounded on the doors with his fists. He contemplated ripping them off like he had done with the front gate. “I protest what you have done to Loki! How could you treat him like this??”

“Do not make me come out there boy!”

Tyr growled and the guards on either side shifted uncomfortably. “I wish you would. Then you could answer for yourself old man!” But Odin had not. He had returned back to silence. So Tyr had left.

Perhaps a short wait was for the best. It allowed Tyr’s temper to cool and hopefully it would do the same for Father. He needed to hear him out; hear Father’s side. Just as he and his brothers waited to hear Loki’s side of the story. 

He met a servant at the entrance to the dungeon, carrying a platter of food. “Is that Loki’s breakfast? I’ll take it down.” But when he moved to take it he saw what was truly on it. Blobby, colorless things. And tiny amounts. “What is this!? This slop is barely enough to feed a bird!”

The servant’s short patience was gone. “He is a prisoner, Lord Tyr, not a visiting lord. And he hardly eats anything. Why should we waste food on him?” The servant jumped back when Tyr’s suddenly dark eyes turned on him.

“You march back to the kitchens and fetch a meal. A proper meal. A meal for Loki and his three brothers. You _will_ bring it down for him. Now, go!” Not even waiting to see if the servant obeyed, for he knew he would, Tyr made his way down the stairs. The guards stayed at him as he moved past and he noted that there were no longer any near the turn towards Loki’s cell. A thought struck him that made him continue on to the main walkway. He walked silently through the prison, looking into each cell to see what they contained. What he saw made him ill at ease and he knew he needed to show his brothers later. 

Tyr walked through the opening Hodur made and sat with a huff near the bed. Baldur glanced at him but said nothing. All he needed to know was plain on the warrior’s face.

“Had a nice talk with Father?” Loki forced out. He was awake for the day now. Tyr had to look again. He knew he had slept, had seen Loki asleep himself, but it looked as if he got no rest. 

“He’s being stubborn,” Tyr admitted, “won’t even come out of his damned study.”

Loki made a noise and looked away. His hands slowly turned to fists on his knees. He wasn’t surprised. Since Thor had brought him back to Asgard he had spent all his time here in this cell. Odin never came to see him. Even Mother never came to see him. Thor… he couldn’t be sure about Thor. There was times, he thought, he sensed him in the shadows of the tunnel leading to the room outside his cell. He hated guessing and so had convinced himself it wasn’t true. Loki forced himself to breathe and to loosen his hands. Tyr, Baldur, and Hodur were here now, at least.

Tyr continued. “I’m giving him the day. If not, I’ll just go rip the doors off.”

Baldur snorted. “Like you did with the front gates? The masons are going to hate you. Again.”

Tyr shrugged in his easy way. “Things shouldn’t be in my way. Besides, I couldn’t give father the chance to bar us out.”

“…you think he would do that?” Tyr turned at Loki’s soft question. There was something in his face for the briefest of moments. Then it was hidden away. Like Loki was scared at the thought. Scared that Odin would try to forbid his sons from seeing each other.

“We weren’t going to risk it.” Hodur said. As if the news were a matter of fact. “And Baldur thought I should reserve my magic in the event we needed to fight out way in.”

The three brothers watched as Loki stared. It had been so simple to them, but the declaration at shocked the youngest of their number. Why would that be? They had not thought that their Father’s angers and decisions would run deep enough to prevent them from entering Asgard. Yet that risk was not one they were willing to take when if involved Loki.

Besides, why would they not conquer their home to rescue him?

For the moment, things would be simpler if they tried to reason with their father. And more relationships would be kept in place if they did so.

People moved outside the cell. “Ah! Breakfast, finally!” Tyr went to gather the trays from the servants. Before Loki could protest a tray was on his lap. He could only blink at the contents. He hadn’t seen food like this… in a long time. Tyr’s manners were still atrocious, Baldur still polite, and Hodur still skilled at not spilling a single thing. When was the last time they had sat down and eaten a meal like this? Unbidden, Loki found himself looking for Thor, and felt a twinge of emptiness when he was not there. 

Though his appetite had returned with the presence of his brothers, Loki still picked at his food. “Loki, don’t make us bribe you to eat.” Loki looked up at Baldur and the smile of the white haired man was teasing. “Remember when you were little and trying to eat new things? You’d only do it for a kiss.”

Loki popped a few pieces of fruit in his mouth, a grin spreading across his mouth as he presented his cheek. “Give us a kiss.”

He jumped when Baldur did.

As his brothers ate, Tyr cast his gaze about the cell. Even _if_ Loki had done something horrid enough to be thrown done here, he should not be treated like this. Loki was clearly visible to the rest of the prison. There was nothing to prevent the sounds and taunts from the rest of the prisoners. They had been here only a day but had yet to see the lights go off in the place. The size of the cell was adequate for a single person. With Loki blessedly by himself and not thrown into another cell crowded with others. But there was hardly anything in here. A table but nothing to write on or with. A handful of books on uninteresting subjects. A cot so narrow Loki had to lay on his side instead of his back.

And that was not to say of Loki himself. He was so pale, as if he had not seen the sun in a long, long time. He was filthy and unkempt. Were they not allowing him to bathe? That spoke nothing of the room itself. There was dirt here and there on the walls. Cobwebs in the corners and along the ceiling. Not to mention the…

The-

“ACHOO!” Tyr sneezed and the small table across from him went flying. He tried to regain control of his nose, but a series of sneezes wracked him. Luckily no other furniture was within reach of the violent reactions. “Damn dust…”

He froze when a chuckle rose amongst the brothers. He had to look up to reassure himself that it truly did come from Loki. A pale hand covered his mouth to keep the sound inside. “You never could stand the library. You’d be sneezing into your shirt by the time you managed to find me…”

“Too much dust and too many words,” Tyr waved it away like he had done as a young man. “If you must read, read outside!” That was their old argument. But Loki still smiled. Especially when Tyr sneezed again.

“Good grief Tyr.” Hodur sighed and pulled a handkerchief out of his sleeve. He held it out to their eldest brother, who only stared at it. And the blind brother sensed it. “What? I have to keep them around for Malekith. He gets into _everything_. Wipe the spittle off your beard; I can smell it from here.”

Tyr muttered about pushy brothers as he wiped his face and blew his nose. Baldur pinched his cheeks, answering the mutters with a reply not to mock a sibling. They failed to notice their brother’s reaction until the felt the confusion of his gaze. They turned to him. He look at them with furrow brow and parted lips. “Who is Malekith?”

It was Hodur’s turn to furrow his brow. A hand reached out, touching the fine bones in his youngest brother’s hand. “My son? I wrote about him in my letters…” When the explanation drew no reaction realization dawned over the blind man. “I thought it strange. I mean, I understand Father and why he wouldn’t want anything to do with him. And Mother, a little, even though it’s her first grandchild. But not you…”

His smile was gentle, filled with the fondness of a parent to a child. And of a brother sharing that child with a sibling for the first time. “He’s so curious and gets into everything. He already knows how to read but he still wants us to read to him at night. He can’t wait to meet you. He’s like us, Loki. He has our magic.” 

“I…I have a nephew?” It was hard for Loki to believe. And yet… The idea delighted him. And it frightened him. A child of Hodur’s. Another piece of him out in the world. A child that had the magic just like himself and Hodur. But… but if Odin knew… Would he simply ignore the child? Or would he try to do something to him?

“And nieces!” Baldur chimed in. His silver eyes were bright with laughter. “My Nan’na is carrying and with twins! Both girls. They are soon to be born and then we shall have some girls in the family.”

Loki could not take it anymore. Here were his brothers. Here were those once so precious to him; Tyr, Baldur, and Hodur. Thor was already gone. As was Mother. Father had simply never been. They still loved him. They still believed in him. They had come, shocking and overwhelming, to be with him. Now…now their mere beings promised something more. And children. Innocent children who knew nothing of him beyond the fond stories their fathers’ told. A new life. A second chance. 

Loki would not allow himself to dream of it only to have it snatched away.

He would rather suffer it now. When he did not even have it. 

He had to tell them.

He would not allow himself to be hurt again. He would not allow the pain of wondering and second guessing ever again. He would save himself the trouble this time. 

They needed to know.

Loki drew back, took his hands where they could not reach them. His head bow so they could not see his face and eyes. He steeled himself. He wrapped himself in the words that remained to him so there would be something to take the brunt of the pain. 

 

“I am not your brother. I am a Frost Giant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A teeny, tiny part of me wanted to cliffhang at the Malekith part and then reveal next chapter that, here, he's just Hodur's young son. But the Loki-is-a-Frost-Giant worked more with what I want to do.


	5. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers' reactions to Loki's revelation and their first confronation with Odin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay (and that LJ had the first part of this before here). Norsekink had a no-posting Saturday to back up/tidy up the meme so I used that to write ahead on a few prompts. Also started my new job Sunday :D

Loki waited for the words to come. Loki waited for the wide eyes and frightened expressions. He waited for the rage to break over him and for the hands to fall on him. And when they failed to it made it all the worse. His heart raced in his chest. Come on, his mind screamed, hurt me…kill me. I am a monster. I am not the brother. I am the thing that deceived you and tricked you.

“So?” Tyr’s hand rose and ruffled through the dark, unkempt hair. There was an easy smile on his face, like Loki had just told him the sky was blue or that rain was water that fell from clouds. 

Loki swatted it away. His green eyes were wild. The pupils mere pinpoints. “So??? Fool, I am the monster. I am the enemy that Asgard fears and whispers of. I am not the brother you thought of all these years—“ His chest heaved, wanting to continue, but the twins had shared a look between them that he could not ignore. It was a look they shared many times when he was growing up. Where the dual-brothers communicated secretly without the need to speak. 

“Loki,” Baldur began and his voice was as gentle as it always was. “why would that matter to us?”

“Because…because it means we’re not like each other…”

Hodur stopped him with the simple turn of his body. “Loki. We’re part Jotun,” his hand moved to encompass all of them.

“…what?” The declaration chased any response he would have made away. “How--?”

“Father’s a half Jotun, Loki.” Baldur pointed out. “His father was Bor, out of Buri, but his mother is Bestla, who is a frost giant.” 

Hodur’s face went white. “You’ve never met Grandmama Bestla... The war made it difficult for her to travel at first, but she came for visits when you were a baby…” He trailed off, more wondering than sure. “But…did she visit while you were a boy, before we left Asgard?” The answer was presented to the room and the other brothers wondered. It was then that they finally realized the answer was, shockingly, no. “Could Father have kept her from visiting? Why would he do that?”

“That doesn’t make sense…especially when the new baby was one…” Tyr whispered. All eyes turned to him. And it was in that moment Loki knew two things: that Tyr had known all along that he was an adopted frost giant, and that the twins had not.

“You…you knew…”

The head with the crown of red hair nodded. “I was the eldest child and almost a man. When he returned from the war he came to me, said that he had found a frost giant baby abandoned, and that he was my new littlest brother…” The giant hands fiddled with themselves, running over the calloused knuckles. “He _told_ me that he was going to tell the rest of you. It didn’t matter to me and when none of the rest of you mentioned it, treated the baby as one of us, I figured it didn’t matter to you either.” He spoke of Baldur, Hodur, and Thor and the brotherhood between all of them. A brotherhood that had been extended to Loki when the baby had arrived and had blossomed as all the boys grew. 

The great hands drew over his face. When he raised his head, Loki saw there were tears on his cheeks. “Forgive me, Loki. I…I assumed. And in assuming, even though I knew not what it would do, I hurt you.” 

Loki did not answer him. A hand slowly drew closer to his brother’s. It hesitated, hovering over it. They finally touched, the pale fingers ghosting over the giant trembling ones. “It…even if…it does not bother you that we are not related by blood?”

One of Baldur’s slim hands joined theirs. “Blood is not the sole thing that binds people. Being brothers is more than just sharing a bloodline. Its spending time with one another and getting to know each other.”

“It’s sharing your joys and your pains.” Both of Hodur’s hands completed a circle around them. “Sharing your excitement and your fears. Its presenting triumphs and crying on shoulders and whispering stories to each other in the night.” 

“It’s who you think of first,” Tyr whispered. “Who you want to know things and want to be with. Sure, they can be pains. Sure, there are times you want to strangle them. But if someone else dares to touch them? You are the one who makes sure there is hell to pay.”

“You… you fools…” Loki gasped. “You damned, big fools.”

And his brothers held him as he wept. 

It turned out that, along with Odin’s revealed half Jotun nature and the Jotun grandmother he had never knew, Loki had two uncles that he had never met. He had known that Odin was the eldest of three brothers, and the other two were Vili and Ve. But that was all. Loki had always assumed the two were dead. No so, his brothers said. The more they thought about it the more they understood why Odin might have kept Loki and the full extent of the family separate. Vili, the middle brother, had the blue of the frost giants palely in his skin. Ve, the youngest, had inherited the great size and body of the Jotun. He towered over the rest of the family with limbs like thick trees. 

“So it is not very surprising at all that a child of Odin should have the powers of winter,” Hodur whispered, leaning his head against Loki’s, releasing gentle blows of breath against the wall. Smiling, Loki watched as the frost curled and spiraled over the surface. 

~*~*~

As he lay with his face to the wall, Loki tried to keep his skin from twitching. He should be used to this by now. The leap skin, the hollowness in his veins, the way his instincts drew on an empty store and threw back into his body. Every ounce of magic had been drained from his body and then the empty stores sealed off. It was the only time he had seen the man who had once been called Father by him before being thrown in this place. There wasn’t any need for this place and these walls. Without his magic, he was nothing. There were some days he could barely function.

_You must see what I cannot,_  
Loki Brother Loki Brother,  
Nil sa saol seo ach ceo,  
Is ni bheimid beo,  
ach seal beag gearr.  
Loki Brother Loki Brother,  
Nil sa saol seo ach ceo,  
Is ni bheimid beo,  
ach seal beag gearr. 

His whole being settled at the soft yet deep voice. The strong hands soothed over his hair as their owner sang. Mother had sung a lullaby for him too, but he could never remember the words, only the tune. Hodur had sang for him all the time, not just until he was deemed too old. Hodur might nit be able to see yet made up for it with his voice. He’d always thought if Bragi wasn’t so obstinate, Hodur would have become their skald. Bragi had never forgiven his brother for remembering an epic more thoroughly than he. 

A smell wafted up to Loki’s nose and he rolled over quickly. It couldn’t be, but it was! Hodur smiled as he sensed his brother’s glee. He set the small pot on the table alongside two bowls. “How did they let you in the kitchen?” Loki gasped as he looked into the pot. It was his favorite sup, the one Hodur always made when any of them were feeling poorly, made with chicken along with many herbs and vegetables. “I did as I always did. I ignored them and swatted away the hands that wanted to ‘help’.”

Hodur served up a bowl as Loki sat at the table. Now that the brothers had cleaned the room (Loki had laughed until he cried at the sight of Tyr with a kerchief over his hair) as well as brought him a bath and change of clothes for Loki, he started to resemble the brother they knew. He listened to Loki eagerly start into the soap and the soft hums of pleasure. The guards thought it so strange. But how could no one not see that a little common care and decency could help a man? He slowly ate his own bowl, thinking of little Malekith who would always sit on his lap to eat the ‘yum yum soup”. Loki had already ladled a second helping when Hodur spoke softly.

“Loki… where is your magic?” He knew it would be sensitive and asked it gently. He had waited until their brothers were gone. While Hodur knew they meant well they had not been born with magic. Tyr and Thor were warriors thru and thru. Baldur was as well, and the tiny bit of magic he knew was thru his unique twin bond with Hodur. Magic was not something most people could be trained in like a weapon. Those exceptions usually battered for it or held a bit of power. No. Most were born with it and discovered it as they grew. It was more common in the elf realms along with the Jotun with their ice magic, but in Asgard it was rather unheard of. It did not help that Hodur and Loki were of the rarer set, whose magic was evident nearly from birth. It was a steady and constant companion, always there at the back of one’s mind or underneath the surface. To have that taken completely taken away without even a few simple levels to line the void was foolish. Even deadly. It was just another cruel step to deprive Loki of everything he was.

Hodur could feel the icy grin. “Odin couldn’t very well put me in here with all my powers now.” The words were cruel and biting. Dripping like venom. But underneath he could hear the emptiness and the fright. “Better than the alternative.”

“Alternative?”

“…he wanted to sew my lips and eyes shut…”

Loki jumped as his blind brother leapt to his feet and flew up the stairs. A tiny part of him was pleased at the rage on his behalf. The rest of him stared wide eyed at the staircase where Hodur had disappeared. And even wider at the shout protests that followed.

~*~*~

Odin was suspicious when his two eldest sons pinned im in the throne room. They had been in Asgard a while and yet had spent the entire time with Loki. He knew they would speak with him. He would not bow himself to go down to them. They would have to come to him But more than the king of Asgard and the Allfather he was a father. Their father. And Odin knew his sons. Tyr and Thor were warriors with tempers that at times exceeded his own. Baldur was beloved by all and along with Loki was the most diplomatic. Yet there was a hidden strength in that, with his open face and easy smile, people knew when he was truly pissed. Hodur— As the thought of his middle son, the blind son, he appeared. Breezing into the room as easy as if he could see, his steps confident and sure. His robes fluttered about his ankles at the speed of his mission. His face was unreadable, impassive. Odin could only look at the unseeing eyes for a few moments. The black orbs, the shadowed sockets, the distant spark of stars.

Eyes that saw right through him.

Even Hodur’s power, his magic, was a presence. It arched around him unseen but felt. Like a wave that roared in the ears and pricked at the skin. A power that Odin could never even hope to barter for. The son he would never predict. “So,” Odin said as he smote the floor with Gungnir, “you finally remembered you have a father." None of them answered or even blinked. “I believe it is you who forget you have sons.” Hodur answered. He stood, flanked on either side by Tyr and Baldur. Odin gripped the spear tighter. “Only the actions of those sons have done anything to drive the wedge between.” So many plans wasted. So many things to be cast aside due to simple foolish decisions of mere boys. Tyr sent to conquer a new realm- instead getting rid of only the trouble makers and marrying himself to Death herself. Hodur, born so useless, might have helped in some way eventually- bedded himself down with a man and begot a child by him. Then Baldur, perfect Baldur who could have been so great Odin himself didn’t know which plan to plain- following his brother’s wicked example and bedded his own man, fouling himself.

Baldur’s hand shot out and slapped into his twin’s. Hodur’s hand had not even made to move. But now it was there one could see how the dark twin strained against the light twin. “Do not cast aside your own actions,” Tyr growled. “What you have done to Loki.”

“What I have done?! He has done it to himself!”

“Done to himself? So Loki is the one who has locked himself in the dungeon?”

“You don’t know what he has done. If you had been here like you should, you would know.”

“We should have been here,” Baldur admitted “_for_ Loki. That is our crime, but we _admit_ that.”

“But you can’t toss someone aside!” Tyr finally burst. “Have any of you gone down to see? You, Mother, Thor? You house him with criminals, many whom he helped put there. In fact, his cell is surrounded by those.”

Odin glared at the insinuation in Tyr’s voice. But the boys didn’t permit him to speak. The more they argued the louder they became. Protest after protest laying atop each other. “Do you know how despondent he has become? How it’s compounded from even before the coronation?” “How could you let him grow so unkempt? So thin?” “Is he never allowed to see the light of day? Is that why he’s so pale?” “Surely everything was considered at the trial that he does not need to be locked up—“'

The three brothers grew silent as Odin laughed. “With all he did, there was no need to gather an assembly for trial.”

That’s when Tyr and Baldur exploded. Even Loki away and down in his cell heard and felt the shouts of their protests. But as the eldest were loud, Hodur was silent. And the silence was deadly. Ice cracked from where he stood, forming jagged and cruel shapes from where his feet met the floor. It was a silence that one could hear roaring like a furious beast. And in it his brothers quieted.

“Fine then. If you say we do not know, we will learn for ourselves what has happened. The truth.” He turned and made to leave, ice forming with each step. He paused and cast his dark eyes over his shoulder. “But know, Odin, you cannot always warp reality to your will. And you will not like what we do.”

When they were gone, Odin sank to the throne, suddenly weak. He cast his one eyed gaze to the alcove partially hidden away. She still stood there, eyes wide, hand clamped over her mouth to hide her sobs. Frigga.

And she had heard everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * The lullaby Hodur sings is a slight twist off Aishling's Song in the Secret of Kells. If you haven't heard of it, WATCH IT. Its just about the only hand animated movie I've fallen for outside of classic Disney and Miyazaki. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiaEzT4Exwo . "But that's Gaelic....shoudn't Hodur sing in Norse?" "Shh. Its my favorite lullaby now. Don't nitpick"
> 
> * The soup Hodur makes is the soup I make whenever a family member is sick, Chicken Provencal Soup, which in turn is the same soup the lady who was like a surrogate mother to me made when I wasn't feeling well. (If you'd like to try it look up Chicken Provencal "Stoup" by Rachel Ray. Its the closest to the recipe my surrogate mama used; be sure to use the herbs listed (Herbs de Provencal) otherwise it doesn't taste the same. I swear its the bits of lavendar they include)


	6. Piecing Together - Tyr

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Detective!Tyr

Tyr was not like many of his brothers.  He was not as clever as Hodur and Loki and he did not have the calming nature of Baldur that let most people tell him everything.  They were good at keeping tempers calm.  They were at navigating the twists and turns of diplomacy and knowing the right things to do and say.  For the longest time he and Thor had been thrash first, ask questions later.  Yet he had grown and learned, even a little.  But it was a balance and so he left it to them.  Because he could talk to the other side.  He could talk to the people most like himself who didn’t hide behind agendas and said what they saw and believed.  The twins could handle Heimdall and the others; Tyr would handle the people that were most often overlooked.

First he tracked down those at the coronation and, more specifically, had been near Thor and Loki before the Thundering Prince had been presented.  “They were bantering, like you boys always did,” the cupbearer said.  

“Was it harsh?  Mocking?”

The cupbearer shook his head, looking up to the eldest brother.  “No.  It was…playful.  Loki asked if Thor was nervous and Thor jested, like how could a warrior be nervous?  He mentioned that time the five of you snuck off to visit the Norns and he had to fight off their hundred warriors.”  Ah yes, Tyr remembered that…just not quite the same way.  There had been, what, two or three protective guards?  They had spotted the boys sneaking through the roots of Yggdrasil and they’d scampered off, dragging Thor behind them when he wanted to thump the guards on the head.  But as he remembered Tyr caught the sudden nervous nature of the cupbearer.  “Go on, sir.”

“Well… Loki said he recalled that he was the one who veiled you boys in smoke so you could escape.”  That had been true.  Loki had used his burgeoning magic, trained by Hodur, to cover them as they ran, giggling and mockingly fearful that they would be caught, back to Asgard and into Mother’s weaving room.

Tyr had a sneaking suspicion.  “How did Thor reply?”

And the suspicion was correct as the servant grew more nervous.  “He… he laughed.  He said that some do battle while others just do tricks.  I was standing next to him with some wine Queen Frigga had sent…”

“And you…?”  Tyr nudged the man.  The man fiddled and tried to look everywhere but at him.  He finally broke.  “I laughed with him.”

“You laughed with him?”

“Yes…”

Tyr groaned, dragging a hand over his face and beard.  “You laughed with Thor after he called Loki’s magic mere tricks.”

“Yes… I’ll never forget how the youngest prince looked at me.   I never thought the words ‘if looks could kill’ could be true…  Then the snakes.  Gah the snakes!  Turned the wine right into wriggling snakes…”  The man shivered like the snakes where climbing up is ankles at the moment.  “The two princes laughed at that… I left more there were any more.”  

Tyr dismissed the man.  So Thor had mocked Loki on his magic.  It was an old argument between the two, even since they were little boys.  The wild blond hair as little Thor ran up, yanking on Tyr’s hand for their biggest brother to agree with him.  Calm, dark haired Loki, quietly pointing out the value of magic, casting soft glances to Hodur.  But it was one thing for Thor to mention it, and another thing entirely for a servant –an outsider- to laugh in agreement.

Next was the guard who had brought Thor his winged helm.  The guard stood erect before his former First Prince and Tyr realized it was one of the men he had trained with himself.  “I brought Thor his helm, sir, and then I went back to my position and was there until both princes left.”

“And how did Thor and Loki seem to you?”

“Thor was nervous.  More nervous than I’ve ever seen him; not even putting the helm on immediately.  Loki looked between the two and pointed out the feathers.  Thor immediately eased and laughed, himself again.  He pointed out Loki’s horns and bantered back and forth about sincerity.  They finally stopped and Loki spoke of his envy for Thor.”

That raised a red eyebrow.  “Envy?”

The guard nodded, then looked to his first prince and asked, “Permission to speak freely, sir?”

“I was hoping you were the whole time…”

“I have been,” the guard replied, “but there is also this:  I remember all of you.  I remember training with you and all the stories you told about your brothers.  I have younger siblings of my own, sir, annoying pestering things but I’d never trade them for anything.  I know Loki was speaking truthfully.  He called Thor his brother and his friend, and that Thor should never doubt that he loved him.  I’m a simple guard, sir, never worthy to be much more, but I know Loki must have been speaking truly. I think he wanted Thor to be happy and at ease, while knowing that there was something there supporting him.”  

“Lord Tyr… I think Loki was the only person Thor asked that day… whether or not he looked like a king.”

~*~*~

Tyr next spoke with the servants and cooks who had been serving where Thor’s coronation feast would have taken place.  With the attack on the vault and the subsequent failure of Odin crowning Thor king, the second youngest prince had been, expectantly, in a foul mood.  He had stormed in, tossing people aside, flipping feasting tables.  When had Thor gained such a vain, cruel streak?  Then…once…Tyr had been the same.  

“Who was with Thor?  Did anyone come to see him?”

“Loki was already in the room.  He was here before Thor, actually.”  The woman looked to the other servants, who nodded agreement.  “Waited on the balcony for him to arrive.”

“Then Thor’s friends came after him,” another added, “the Warrior-Lady Sif and the Warriors Three.”  

“I see.”  Baldur was handling the questions they had for Lady Sif and the Warriors Three.  “What happened next?”

“Well, Loki came out and sat next to Thor.  Thor warned him away, since he was so angry.  He growled that it was supposed to be his day of triumph and Loki assured him it would come—“

“Yes, but then he tricked Thor!”  Another, younger, woman added with narrow eyes.  “He agreed with him, gave him what he wanted to here.  Said he agreed with Thor about the Frost Giants and breaking into Asgard and marching into Jotunheim.  He _made_ him defy the Allfather.”

“Oh hush, you little bird” tutted one of the older women.  “Lord Tyr, I’ve got boys of my own.  Now I can’t say what Loki meant when he said that, nobody knows what goes on in his head, but I think he was just trying to give Thor support.  When my husband rebukes or punishes one my boys always gang up together.  I think he wanted to protect Thor, to _keep_ him from doing something stupid.  He tried to keep Thor from going to Jotunheim.”  

“But then Thor announced they were going to Jotunheim-“

“Yes, but do you remember how Loki sighed and covered his face?  My boys always do that when they know the other is going to do something stupid-“

“But this is THOR and LOKI we’re talking about, not your kids-“

“Ladies, please.”  Tyr stopped them before they could squabble further.  Perhaps he should have talked to them separately.  “What happened next?”

“Well, Thor convinced the four.  He talked to Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg, and Sif, trying to convince them to join him and Loki.  He wondered if they were going to let the two of them go alone…”

“You know…” a quiet voice spoke up.  It was the youngest girl, who had been silent up to this point.  “I think Loki was a bit surprised that Thor didn’t even have to convince him.  Like, Thor knew he was going to be there with him.  When Loki questioned him, Thor had this look on his face… like what he was going to do if Loki refused.”

“Yes, now that you say that… Loki didn’t need convincing.  He was the first one to declare that he was going with him. That he wasn’t going to let him go alone.  One by one the rest agreed after that.”  

So, the question was this:  what had been Loki’s true intention in that room?  Every person he asked seemed to have a different opinion.  Many, now that Loki was imprisoned, had switched to a darker opinion.  Under the guise of innocence he had pushed Thor exactly into his plan and egged him on to go to Jotunheim.  But there were others, unsure.  To them, Loki had been surprised when Thor actually broke his father’s law and marched to the frozen realm.  And Loki, as always, had gone along to keep his brother out of trouble.  

Tyr had a feeling.  One he needed to discuss with his brothers.  Especially Hodur.  Though Loki was the only one who might ever say what his true intentions had been, Hodur was able to read him best.  Nothing he had heard about what had done had seemed to go with the evil labeled to him.  He wasn’t sure, he didn’t know…but it sounded like Loki had been trying to test Thor in some way.  

The feeling grew all the more when he tracked down the guards who had been on duty when the group had snuck off to Jotunheim.  It was not their place to report their actions the Allfather King.  And they could not leave their duties of keeping the palace safe.  That was, until, one guard approached Tyr.  “Lord Tyr.  When Thor and the others mounted, Loki held back.  He came to me and told me, that after they had been gone enough to get to the Rainbow Bridge, that I had permission to go to the Allfather and tell him what was happening.”

“I think he wanted to prevent anything from happening should Thor reach Jotunheim.”

~*~*~

The last to be questioned for this day was those that had been assigned to Loki as his personal warriors when he had been assigned the throne.  The entire thing made Tyr want to thump his head against a wall.  How had he never seen it before?  How had he failed to see just how foolish their father had been in all of this.  As a child, growing up, Father had been able to do no wrong in his eyes.  Yet now with his own time and experiences he was getting hints where things had gone wrong.  With his eldest three sons gone and carving their own places among the realms Odin had latched on to the youngest two.  He told them both.  He trained them both.  One of them would be king in his place.  So what was the other to do when he was not chosen?  

It was a short time, a very short time before the return and fight with Thor had ended Loki’s short reign.  Tyr had to gather those who had been in the guard, scattered and separated by the Allfather himself.  He had to move them to deep places, secret places, where Odin and Heimdall would not be able to see and hear all.  But many of the guards admitted that had been a good king despite the sudden pressures heaped on him.  He had to worry for the sudden sleep of his father.  He had to worry at his mother’s refusal to leave her husband’s side.  He had grasped for knowledge just how the situation with Jotunheim really was.  

“Sir, Loki-when-was-King asked me to look into the history of Asgard, and search for new kings changing the acts of their predecessors.  Specifically, if there was any precedent for a new king to change the last act of the previous.  There wasn’t.  And he was troubled.”

“Then there was Lady Sif and the Warriors Three.  They came to demand the Allfather reverse his decision on Thor.  They were shocked when they saw it was Loki…”

“And took a long time to make oaths to the king…”

“For a moment, Loki sounded happy that his friends were there.  That perhaps they could help them…  And he wanted to help them.  He offered to hear their matter right away.  But when he heard that it was to reverse Thor’s banishment.”

The eldest among them spoke.  “It is…true…that many of Loki’s first actions in the past are looked at and tinted by what he did later on… but when he was king, he was trying to be king.  I think he was trying to do good for all, and not just the few.”

“I do not think it helped that Sif and the Warriors Three immediately undermined their new king.  And then they added to it by only thinking of one friend and sneaking out of Asgard to do what they wanted.  It might have been noble, and it is noble to believe in a friend and want to help them, but not when Loki needed them too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure that there might be readers who disagree with interpretations here, and that's ok. I'm just going off my impressions/impressions of my friends who've watched the movie with me about Loki's actions. A far part of this and Baldur/Hodur's detective work are based a far bit off the deleted scenes. I think a lot of fans believe that the ones including Loki should have been included in the actual movie. 
> 
> * First scene is off Deleted Scene 1 where Loki and Thor speak before the coronation. I liked how this showed the relationship between the two, in fact, it appeared like two normal siblings would. People Tyr is talking to is the servant with the cup Loki magics and the guard who handed Thor his helmet
> 
> ** Second is based off Deleted Scene 4 which is a very extended scene where Thor convinces W4 to go to Jotunheim. I especially like the exchange "you're not expecting Loki and I to go in alone" where Loki is surprised and Thor looks suddenly not so sure if Loki isn't going. Granted, it seems both ways between "god what are you dragging me into now/you didn't ask" or "I'm included :D ?"
> 
> *** Last scene is based off a mix between the reactions of Sif + W3 when they see Loki is king, a bit of Deleted Scene 7 (Frigga and Loki; Loki now king), and most of Deleted Scene 9 (Sif and W3 sneak off to Midgard) because I think anyone can see that they basically/immediately undermine Loki (though very open to interpretaion on all parties)


	7. Piecing Together - Baldur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Detective!Baldur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure I like this one as much as I have the others. I might come back and try to edit/fix it. There could also be some changes to the Heimdall scene once Thor 2 comes out...

Baldur made his way down the Rainbow Bridge.  Riding a stead or flying would have been faster, but he needed the walk.  He needed the time to think.  As he walked the material beneath his feet captured his light before reflecting in a myriad of color.  Out of everyone they decided to question he probably had the most difficult.  Out of everyone in Asgard, Heimdall was probably the most mysterious and the least known.  He had always stood watch on the Bifrost as long as he could remember.  The only one who was possibly close to him was Hodur, but Heimdall was always wary of him due to his magic.  His only oath was to Odin and it was one he obeyed intensely.    

“So you’ve finally come.”

The Guardian did not turn as he spoke.  Instead he continued to look out on the universe from the newly repaired Lookout.  For a moment Baldur took the time to look out with him.  He could see the branches and the faint traces of the World Tree stretching out to all realms.  He could see the bright light of his own realm and wondering how Nan’na was doing.  He missed him, but both knew that, in this moment, Loki needed him more.  He hoped they would be able to free Loki in time for the twins’ birth.  He deserved to meet his nieces.  

Taking a breath, Baldur finally spoke.  “Yes, as I said I would.  I would have you tell me all that you saw in these events.  But I would also have your words, and your explanation.”

“For?”

“Opening the Bifrost to Jotunheim in the first place.”  No matter how much the brothers thought of it, that was one of the few things they could not wrap their minds around.  Odin had expressly forbidden  any travel to Jotunheim after the attack on the vault.  With his oath of obedience why had Heimdall done so when Thor, Loki, and the others had arrived.

“I see many things, second son of Odin and Frigga.  I see Thor with his allies down on Midgard, the place they call Earth.  I see your daughters kicking in the womb as their carrier strokes his belly.  But even now I do not know how the frost giants made their way into Asgard.”  His grip shifted on his sword.  “It could have only been Loki’s magic.”

“So you let them into Jotunheim, disobeying the direct order of your king, because something had slipped past you.”

Heimdall didn’t answer.  

“I can understand that with the amount of frost giants right behind them it was, tactically, not a good idea to open the Bifrost.”  Baldur kept his hands by his tunic so he wouldn’t reach up and punch the man.  The idea that both his youngest brothers could have died made him ill.  “But if Odin had not known where they were, they would have died.  And that would have been on you.”  

“But I had reason.  As you know, Loki turned out to be the traitor.”

“As all of you keep saying.”

Heimdall finally turned to face Baldur.  “He turned it on me himself.  When I asked him how he got the Jotun into Asgard, he said that the Bifrost is not the only way in and out of the realm.  That there are secret pathways that not even I can see.  When he removed me as Gatekeeper, I went to slay the traitor, and that was when he froze me with the Casket of Ancient Winters stolen from the vault.”

“The Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, is Asgard’s means to travel between realms.  While it is true that Asgard allows others to travel it, there are many other ways between realms.  How would my brothers and I travel between realms?  And how would we arrive here while the Bifrost is down?  There are many other ways to travel between; some are secret and some are not.  Surely you remember how all of us would sneak off as children.”

“I cannot say if I did, since that would not have mattered.”

Baldur, said to have the longest of patience amongst the brothers, fought to keep himself under control.  “So it was a maybe, a single piece of circumstantial evidence, that led to this decision?  Was this suspicion the same that led you, when Loki was crowned king, as ruled by succession AND by our mother, to immediately betray him by allowing Sif and the Warriors Three to Earth?”

Heimdall turned back to the universe.  “They went to retrieve Thor.  He needed to return, to protect Asgard while the King was in the Odinsleep.”  Which, if Baldur understood things right, would have been another treason since it was Odin who had banished Thor in the first place.  

“If I may ask thus, Heimdall.  Would it not have been within Father Odin’s right to remove you from your position for the first act, when you allowed all of them into Jotunheim, since you had broken your oath?”

“Yes, and I was prepared for it.  But then the Odinsleep came—“

“And then a second, similar act was committed by breaking the new king’s trust.  Would it have not been within _any_ king’s right to remove you?  You are the Guardian, the Gatekeeper.  You are the first line of protection for Asgard.  You are he who is to sound the trumpet at the time of the end.  With such a position but with a sudden inclination to allow a forbidden use of the Bifrost, a king would be within his right to replace you with someone more trustworthy.”  

“Are you saying, King Baldur of Alfheim, that Loki is innocent?”

“I am saying this:  if you had come at me, I would have blasted you too.”  

~*~*~

Baldur sighed and ran his hand through his white hair.  Perhaps he should not be asking people by himself.  Then again, with one or both of his brothers with him, they might come across as intimidating.  Back in Alfheim Nan’na and he always listened to people together and considered each other when they came to a decision.  What had the other thought, seen, and felt?  It kept things in a balance and it usually meant that the best decision was reached.  But this was the only way for he, Hodur, and Tyr to cover the most ground with the time given to them.  

He had saved these four until last.  Sif.  Fandral.  Volstagg.  Hogun.  From all that he heard it seemed that these four were constantly with Thor and Loki before everything had happened.  As their friends, they might have different and deeper insights into what went on.  

He also wanted to know why the four had gone against one brother in favor of the other.

The first was Sif.  Long ago, barely into their teens, Baldur had had a crush on his brother’s friend.  When he had finally gathered enough courage to admit it to her it had not gone over so well.  Whatever her reasons, Loki had taken it that she had hurt his brother.  The hair cutting incident had left whatever friendship between Sif and Loki icy at best, and it seemed that age and time had not changed it.

She stared fiercely at him as she sat down.  She knew exactly what he came to ask.  “I knew I was right.  I knew I was right the whole time.  Someone who tricks and lies and makes mischief that much can only be bad.  You three should have known.  Maybe if you have _been_ here the four of you would have been able to stop him.”

“We know that now, Sif.  And in that is our own blame,” Baldur admitted.

With that, Sif seemed to drain.  He then realized that all her anger and bite was simply a mask.  A mask to hide the hurt that had been dealt to her.  “Tell me this, Baldur:  who was I supposed to stand with?  I was Thor’s friend.  He didn’t deserve to be banished from his only home and family and friends.  I thought Loki was our friend too.  But then he just sat there and refused.  And… and…”

Sif drew back up into herself.  And once more she was the fierce maiden warrior of Asgard.  “I still stand by what I did.  Besides, with what I hear Loki did to Earth?  It just proves what everyone has been saying all along.”

Hogun he remembered as a cheerful young man, but now he understood why he had heard Grim attached to his name.  Baldur had remembered that he was thinking between the stone carvers or even the healers, but that had changed as he was now a warrior.  Quiet, thoughtful, but always watching.  He could see in Hogun’s eyes that the man was always seeing and always listening.  He saw his twin Hodur in him.  They might not speak often, but what they had to say carried meaning.  

“Loki was a good friend.  His trickery, mischief, and lies were many times in jest.  However, many times they saved and protected us.  None of us were close.  No.  But he wanted to be with Thor.”

“The news what Loki had tried to do to Jotunheim, and then what he did on Earth.  It was more like how Thor used to be than how Loki suddenly was.”  

Baldur remembered always having a slightly off feeling about Fandral, and when he saw him again, he recalled why.  It was a person’s personal choice but he had not liked the way Fandral had, or claimed to, treat the ladies.  Then again, the flippant romanticism might be appealing to some people.  But with all that he remembered him as brave and optimistic.

That optimism concerning Loki seemed to have been destroyed.

“Of course I don’t trust him!  He’s never given us any reason to do otherwise.  All this sneaking and cloaking and lies.  Its dishonest.  Not honorable!”

“Even when it was helpful?  Or saved someone?”

“Bah!”  Fandral waved him away. “We didn’t need it.  We could have found another way.  Besides, any _real_ brother would have been the first to go down and rescued Thor!  A _real_ brother would have broken every petty rule and deed to get him back.”

"Besides, he tried to massacre not one but two realms. He could only have ever been a monster."

There was more said, but Baldur cut the interview short.  It kept him from strangling the man.  

He remembered Volstagg as very amiable with a love for food.  And for all appearances that seemed to have stayed the same.  “Loki was a good kid.  I remembered he always made me laugh.  And he was very kind to me children.  They loved his tricks he would show him.  And oh, the recipes he found sometimes in the library.  Divine!”

Baldur smiled.  He knew how Loki loved to make others laugh.  “What did you think when you found that Loki was made king?”  Volstagg, out of all of them, would have the most interesting perspective as he was a father himself.  

That was when the warrior became uneasy.  “Well… at first I was happy.  Loki is much easier to talk to and much less intimidating than the Allfather.  And I know that he was trained just as Thor was, so he or Queen Frigga were the only ones who could take the throne at the time.”

“So you did not mind making the oath?”  Tyr had told him that Volstagg had been the first to make the oath, almost without hesitation.  And that he had also been the first to volunteer when Thor had declared that he and Loki were going to Jotunheim.

“No….yes… well… I mean, he was our king while the Allfather was in the Odinsleep.  But then the others, you see, they wanted Thor back so bad and when they mentioned everything Loki had done…  I don’t know.  I just wanted to make sure my friend was safe.  I thought Loki would understand that if he caught us.”  

Volstagg also was the only one who had not been so surprised at Thor’s banishment.  He had been worried about Thor’s pride.  About how his power and fame had starting going to his head the more he grew into manhood.  When Volstagg had his own children, and got to know other children, he recognized that, at times, Thor was just like a spoiled child that had never been corrected.  But alone amongst other friends who did not or would not see it, it was hard to mention to Thor.  “I can see what Odin did was trying to help his child and be a good father.  It might not have been the right time and in the right way… and I don’t think I would have done it in front of Loki.  Maybe that’s what tipped him over.  But then…to hear what happened on Earth… I just don’t know any more…”

And that was one part of it, Baldur decided afterwards.  From what he had heard from each of them was that they were never truly friends with Loki as they had been with Thor.  It sounded like the only reason why they seemed friends and were together was that Loki was Thor’s brother.  Where were Loki’s friends?  The more he looked the harder they were to find.  When he mentioned it to Hodur, even his twin could not find them.  

The one that worried his twin the most was a boy named Sigyn.  “Those two were inseperable.  Remember how they followed me everywhere?  He was one of the only reasons I felt comfortable that Loki would be ok when I left for Svartalfheim...”

They found out when they asked their youngest brother.  “Loki, what happened to Sigyn?”

Loki’s green eyes grew wide.  He played with his fingers, voice soft in memory.  “Siggy… he went into the guards.  Said he wanted to able to protect me when we went on adventures… that if I was his mage he would be my warrior… Father sent him to the borderlands.  I haven’t seen him since.  It’s been years now…”

Then there was the other thing of note that Baldur had noticed.  No one in Asgard really had any idea what had happened on Midgard.  Each had only heard of it.  Even with the announcement Odin had made it was only that Loki had gone over a line that led to his imprisonment.  So what else could he do than to go down to Midgard and find out for himself?  

And maybe he could convince Thor to finally come home.


	8. Interlude - Thor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So that's where Thor has been the whole time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't know how much I like this one either and I still really don't know what to do with Thor. 
> 
> BECAUSE THOR HAD BEEN HIDING OUT LIKE A WUSS ON EARTH MOST OF THE TIME.
> 
> Also ask and ye shall receive time for one of the reviewers who wanted me to write about the Thor and Loki interaction we see in one of the clips from the movie. 
> 
> Also Avengers and tiny Sandman/Dream cameo

Nick Fury stormed through the Heliocarrier.  If he said fly people should ask how high and how fast.  If he said he needed Agents to the bulkhead he wanted a flood of Agents.  But right now they weren’t going anywhere.  And no matter who he called in the ship he got no response.  Coming to the bridge, however, gave him part of the answer.

They had a visitor.  Just who, how, and why he had gotten on his ship he’d like to know right now.  A glance told him many things and nothing.  He was tall and built of willowy muscles, a warrior of some sort.  There was some sort of warm elegance about him as he sat and talked with a handful of the Avengers.  But not only them.  The entire bridge stared at him like girls at a boy band concert, starry eyed with stupid smiles on their faces.  What was the deal?  Sure, he seemed really nice and glowed so prettily and made him feel warm inside—

“What is the meaning of this?”  Fury coughed to gain their attention.  The visitor turned to him with the rest and smiled, showing his teeth were as bright as his white hair.  Now that he saw his face he thought him familiar somehow.  

“Sir, this is Baldur,”  Steve offered as he jumped to attention.  “He is Thor’s older brother.”

“There are more of you?”  Gods, just he needed.  More outsiders who thought themselves gods.  

“Five of us, total.”  Baldur offered amiably.  “There was something my brothers and I wished to ask of you.  We were also hoping that Thor would be here since he has not returned to Asgard since we arrived.”

“We?”  He needed something to drink if this Baldur was going to ask what he thought he would.  

And of course he did!  “Yes.  Tyr and Hodur would like to come as well.  I thought it best that one of us come down first as to not alarm anyone.”  Maria must have nodded eagerly as Fury slapped a hand to his face because, next he looked, two more men were standing next to Baldur.  One redhaired and buff, a wild grin on his face.  The other a dark twin to Baldur, calm and soothing, his eyes glittering dark orbs.

(He swore he heard a squeal from one of the girls at the navigation panels.  “Ohmygosh, he has eyes like Dream does!!!”)

“Here, sir,”  Steve said politely to Hodur, tapping the back of his seat, “you can have my chair.”

Hodur turned his head towards the man, raising a brow.  He had never been offered such a thing, let alone from a stranger he had just met.  “Why?”

“Well, you need a place to sit.”

“But…I’m blind?”

“That doesn’t mean anything,”  Steve blinked in confusion.  On the other side of the table Stark rolled his eyes, mumbling about too polite boys and their attention stealing.  Despite his confusion at the indifference towards his condition, Hodur took the chair next to his twin.  The Ironman cursed when he saw the dark ring on the twin’s finger.  “I guess brother really is a brother,” he sighed into his hand.  

“We were hoping you could help us,” Baldur said once everyone was introduced.  Though they had not been together as long as Sif and the Warriors Three, he could tell that Thor was good friends with these people.  “As I have said, we are Thor’s older brothers.  But not only that.  We are Loki’s too.  We want to know what happened here on Midgard.  And perhaps see any of those recorded images if they exsist of these events.”  

That silenced the room.  And then people moved and whispered nervously.  Most were quick enough to pick up on things.  They had not heard of these brothers and from the way they asked, they had little to no idea what had gone on.  Would it be right to show them even if they asked?  Many looked to Steve, and Steve looked to Fury.  The Director threw up his hands and nodded.  They had asked for it.

Steve offered his arm to the dark brother “If you permit me, I’ll lead you to where you can watch them.”

Hodur linked his arm with Captain America’s.  As they walked he grinned to his brothers.  “I like this place.”  He was very used to Asgard and how they treated the way he was born.  Midgard did not seem to hold it against him to such an extreme.  They settled into the side room that was provided, Steve asking if they needed anything.  He also made sure that this is what they really wanted.

“I know you want to know… but it might just be better if we told you he did a bad thing.”

“I know,” Hodur whispered to him, “but as his brothers we owe it to him to see as many sides and views as we can.  Thank you.”

It was hours later, hours spent viewing and fearing and reeling and thinking.  What had happened to Loki.  Tyr and Baldur described Loki as so pale and sickly looking when he had stepped from the portal.  The words and actions he presented were not like him.  Had he been manipulated?  Had he been threatened by these unknowns from another plane?  But the truth remained that he had done it.  

“Should we keep going?”  Tyr asked Hodur.  His blind brother was the only one left to obtain the pieces that they were missing.  “Or should we go ask Loki to tell his side?”

Hodur shook his head.  “No.”  As he spoke he played with the glass ring on his finger.  “We need to know as much as the situation as we can.  To see and to hear as much as he saw and heard.  Then we will be greater able to understand him… and try to understand what Father did…”

They were quiet.  Each thought the same thing.  

“Still going to break him out of prison, aren’t we?”

“Yep.”

“MY BROTHERS!”

All, even Hodur, jumped as the door to the room was thrown open.  In strode the bundling sun that was their second youngest brother.  For a brief moment they could see and hear the rest of his human friends behind him before he caught them up in his wide arms and tickling beard and deep laugh.  Even with what they had come to do the joy rose within them too.  They had missed him as they had missed Loki.  Words tumbled out over each other.  Introductions to his Earth allies even though they had all met.  Smiles.  Touches.  

Brothers.

Thor finally turned back to them.  His grin was wide and his stance happy.  “Brothers, what is the occasion you have come to see me?”

“Thor…why have you not been home?”

With that one question, all of the joy at their reunion physically drained out of Thor.  As he sank into a nearby chair the rest of the Avengers wisely left the four brothers to their family matters.  He sighed.  He ran his hand through his hair as he tried several times to find where to speak.  “It…it is too painful to be home.  It is easier to be here.”

“You did not want to see us?  Or Loki?”  

“No!  I did not even know that you have arrived back in Asgard!  But…”  Thor growled softly, hand curling into a fist.  “Loki…I do not know how to talk to Loki anymore.  Father…”  A strange look past in his eyes, like a feeling glazed itself over to protect him.  “Father knows what the wisest course of action is in all of this.  But I… I wanted to be sure I would not go against him if… another part of me tried to be against him.  So I have remained here.”

“Even if that meant leaving Loki alone?”  Baldur asked gently.  Thor looked to him as he dragged his hand through his hair.  He always did that when he was unsure and nervous, even as a child.  “We were almost always together.  I thought maybe if I left, he’d remember.  And go back to the Loki I knew…”

Each elder brother pondered over that statement.  And how to answer it.  How to tell Thor that, in this case, it was the worst course of action.  If Loki had left alone before all this started he certainly left alone now.  Yet even as they tried Thor spoke for them.

“But that’s wrong, isn’t it?  I tried so many times.  I tried to go down there and talk to him… but I never got far.  I’d see him from the doorway and my mind would go blank.  What am I supposed to say?  What am I supposed to feel?  Angry?  Piteous?  Loving?  Hard?  It was then I realized, no matter how we had grown up together, I do not know Loki all that well…”

The words hung in the air.  Then, Hodur reached out and laid a hand on Thor’s.  “Thor.  You know by now that sometimes the things we say can hurt, can never fix things.  But silence can be just as bad.  Or worse.  Perhaps you two just need to talk to each other.  And whatever happens, happens.  But then you both know you tried.”

The youngest there let out a breath.  “I’ve been thinking…”

Tyr chuckled and ruffled the golden hair, “Now that’s dangerous for you~”

Thor rolled his eyes and batted the hand away.  Battle came easy to them.  Taking the time to think and consider did not.  “It is just that, if I had returned right away, what would have happened.  I know that I needed to learn a lesson… that the power I have does not mean I can kill at will.”

He laid a hand on Mjolnir as he spoke.  “It is as the lessons we had as children.  To have forgotten them… like how Mjolnir is not only to destroy but also to build…  If I had returned to the throne right away we still would have been at war, and then what would I have done?  Would I have gone on killing?  It was not right of me to stand so suddenly against Loki, but… but I didn’t… I didn’t want him to be in that same danger.”

The tears fell before he could even blink them away.  “Before I knew it we were fighting.  Why?  Why did we fight?  And then, hanging there…I couldn’t grab him… I couldn’t reach out in time.  I searched so long and found nothing.”

For a brief moment his eyes lit up, then they darkened like a sky before a mighty storm.  “When I heard he was alive, had appeared on Earth… It was like another chance… but then Father told me what he was doing  I couldn’t believe it.  I didn’t… until I saw him and what he had done.  Then… then there was nothing I could do.  I should have known Father was right.  He saved me from being a killer, but he couldn’t do the same for Loki.”

That had bothered the brothers too.  The Thor they remembered as a young man was different.  Just when had he transformed into the spoiled child that believed the destruction of an entire people was ok?  True, it had never occurred.  But Thor had had to learn the hard way the lesson he needed.  Yet there, even in that, had something gone wrong?  

And what was in the words that Thor said that made their instincts rear.  Somehow, behind them, they heard the whisper of their father.  Perhaps it was not intentional.  Perhaps it was a simple mistake, a twist…  The idea was a little better than the ugly one, the dark, the sinful…  There was nothing wrong that, as the many children of the same father, to be on different sides.  Yet, here, it almost sounded like Thor was wary to go against him.  Like he didn’t have a choice.  

“Brothers…”

They all turned back to him as he spoke.  Thor drew in a breath and slowly let it out.  “I cannot promise what I will do and say.  I am angry… but why, and at who, I don’t know anymore.  But…”  the words softened now, barely a whisper, “but I can still try…”

Tyr wrapped an arm around him.  “That’s all we’re asking, Thor…”

Before the four left, they went to say goodbye to the men and women that made up Thor’s friends and allies.  It was good to know that, even if it was on another realm, Thor had surrounded himself with good people.  No matter how wild and varied they could be.

They would have to be sure to allow Loki the same freedom once they broke him out.

The reactions were varied, from shouts to whispers, when Thor announced that he was returning home for a time.  Many already knew that it involved Loki; guilty and wild and truth unknown.  Yet there were some who realized on their own, or after the gentle yet firm words of Hodur, that they were returning to attempt to right a deep wrong, no matter what the end result would be.  It was the hard stare of Captain America that settled Fury enough to allow them to leave.  And invite them back to visit whenever they wanted.

(Hodur turned to the woman he had heard earlier.  “I thank you greatly for the compliment to my eyes.  I do not here it much.  If you wish, you may visit my realm whenever you like.  Dream stops by often and I am sure he would speak to one of his dreamers.”)

~*~*~

When they returned to Asgard, they did not go right back to the dungeon.  They would not force Thor to go their immediately.  He needed to do it in his own way and his own time.  And it also was that they had not seen Thor for the same time they had not seen Loki.  They called a private meal to his rooms to have peace away from their father who still remained away.  

Thor marveled at all of the things that had happened in their realms.  He had not heard of Tyr’s and Baldur’s marriages, just as he too had not heard of his nephew’s birth and his nieces’ coming birth.  He bombarded them with questions of their kingships.  How did they do it?  Were they good kings?  Did they make mistakes?  There was a look in his eyes, remnants of a time when he had thought he would be king.  And in that look revealed all the doubts and worries he had had before the pride had masked it.

It was deep into the night they decided to leave their second youngest brother to his rest.  The three eldest decided for a walk deep into the gardens, to talk amongst themselves all they had seen and heard that day concerning Loki.  They did not have everything but each knew they were close.

It still came as a shock when they quietly came down the dungeon stairs and heard voices floating up towards them.

“After all this time, _now_ you come to visit me brother.”  It was Loki, and yet it was not.  The voice was filled with such an anger and resentment they had only heard from him when he spoke of their father.  “Why?  To mock?”

Thor was quiet for a long time.  “No, Loki.  I wish to… talk.”  They could hear him struggling with his own anger and hurt.  “I think I can trust you to allow me that much.”

“What makes you think you can trust me?”

“I don’t,” was the immediate reply.  “You should know… when we fought each other in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there.  Somewhere.”  Tyr and Baldur could see, and Hodur could feel, the emotions warring over Loki’s face as he listened to Thor.  For a brief second, hope, then pain.  “That hope no longer exists to protect you.”

Loki made no reply.

And Thor once more was silent.  He played with his cloak, struggling to say what was whirling inside.  “I don’t even know… if that hope can be reborn.”

“But I still wish to try.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Upon which I reveal that Hodur (in all the versions I write of him) has his eyes inspired by Neil Gaiman's Sandman aka Dream (because dark shadowed eyes like stars shining out from a great distance totally works for a night/moon/dark god).
> 
> I still think, despite how much blame and truth there is in all the horrible things BOTH Thor and Loki have done, there's probably still remnants of their relationship as brothers deep down. Because I think siblings are really the only ones who can chew us out and we not turn around and bitch slap them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QURskpIS8yk
> 
> (That, and as the older sibling who just taught her younger, and male, sibling how to drive the clip made me crack up over all the car rides we've been in together)


	9. Piecing Together - Hodur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Detective!Hodur.
> 
> Also more deleted scenes and norse mythology then you can trip over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of this is deliberately written where it is hard to tell Odin's memories from Hodur viewing/hearing it since one mind is in another. Also glimpses of the father Odin thought or wanted to be

Odin’s hall was cast in the deep shadows that had crept in from the night.  Many of the torches and braziers were extinguished.  Most of the palace was in bed and only those awake were those that guarded those in sleep.

And then there was Hodur.

He glided soundlessly into the throne room.  He did not need to wander.  He did not need to cast his magic or feel cautiously with his hands where he was going.  As a boy and as a young man he had spent many a time in this place.  Seven steps upward to the platform upon which the dais sat.  Then ten more steps up the dais until reaching the throne Hlidskjalf itself.  His brothers had described it to him as a great, golden thing.  Even now he could feel the gentle glow of his skin reflecting off it.  Intricate knotworks and decorations had been worked into the gold.  There was a place on either side of its foot for Father’s wolves Geri and Freki to rest, just as there was two perches behind the throne for his two ravens to rest.

Hodur sat on the throne.  He shivered as his body pressed against the metal.  He could feel the runes working in the throne, opening up to reveal hidden views into all the nine realms.  His own magic bubbled up, eager to connect with it, but with a thought he stopped both it and the runes.  That was not what he needed the throne for.  Out of a sleeve came a small knife.  A slim, glittering thing of obsidian given to him as a courting gift by his consort.  Without hesitation he turned it on his own palm and sliced it open.  The burning blood bubbled up, pooling, and he had to be careful not to spill it as he did the same to the other palm.  He set the knife in his lap and his hands, face up, to rest on the armrests of the throne.  

Hodur had barely set his back and head against the throne when the whirling of wings was one the air.  There was a single caw from each of them and then the ravens were upon his wrists.  

“My, my!  What is it we have here?”  Huginn, ‘thought’, purred as he waddled closer to the wound.

“Blood,” answered Muninn, ‘memory’, “yummy, delicious, oh so powerful blood.”

Hodur kept himself from flinching as the beaks pushed into the wounds.  Huginn and Muninn eagerly lapped up the blood, feathers fluffing in excitement.  When they finished they turned on his wrists to face him.  He could feel their gazes.  

“That is a rare treat,” spoke Muninn.  “Yes,” answered Huginn.  “I wonder what the middle son of the Allfather wants?”

Hodur allowed a breath of wind to pass on either side of his head.  Dark strands fluttered away from his ears, revealing the small and glittering moonstone earrings that dangled from his ears.  With an excited caw the ravens hopped up his arms to rest on his shoulders.  Beaks clicked against the stones and soon the earrings were gone.

“What is it you want to know?”  asked one.

“I want to know,” Hodur whispered.  “I want to see what happened with Loki.”  

Hodur could not prevent the gasp that froze his throat as the two ravens pressed their foreheads against his temples.  Instinct clawed up inside him as the strange and foreign images flashed across his inner mind.  He had been born blind and did not see the world around him as other people did.  To witness it now made his heart race and his stomach cold.  Anxiety made him want to run to the farthest corner of his mind and kick the intrusion out.  But he could not.  He needed to fight against himself to know part of the truth.  

Hodur needed to do it for his brother.  Hodur needed to do it for all of them.

~*~*~

“How could you have done this!?”  He heard the voice of their mother.  Gentle and caring through all their childhoods, now tight and angry and afraid.  She marched up to her husband and her eyes sparked.  Just because they were boys did not mean the brothers had taken all their strengths from their father.

Odin turned to her, his one eye narrow.  “Do you understand what he has set in motion?”  Thor.  The two spoke of Thor.  They had gathered that the attack Thor had started on Jotunheim had been what had led to his banishment.  “He’s taken us to the brink of war!”

“But banishment?”  Frigga kept herself together, but Hodur could hear the pain in her voice.  “You would lose him forever?  He’s your son!”  The word echoed in the room, repeating over and over into the distant corners.  Frigga stared him down and Odin returned it.

“And what would you have done?”  Odin asked, voice quieter.  

“I would have not exiled him to a world of mortals, stripped him of his powers to suffer alone.”  Frigga had to pause.  There were tears shimmering in her eyes.  She suffered as a mother suffered.  There was a tiny shake of her head as she admitted quietly, “I would have not had the heart.”  

“And that is why I am king” Odin drew the last word out, punctuating it with all his authority.  Frigga opened her mouth to speak once more, but Odin stopped her.  “I, too, grieve the loss of our son.”  He raised a fist over his heart and in that moment Hodur felt as Odin had felt.  Conviction of a king.  But hidden deep a twinge in his heart and questioning.  Had he done the right thing?  The old man shuffled back, trying to physically distance himself from his wife.  His one eyed gaze glanced to the ground as he painfully admitted, “there are some things that even I cannot undo.”

“You can bring him back.”  Frigga begged.  There was worry in her eyes, and deep beneath it all, fear.  

“No! His fate… is in his own hands now.”  Odin turned to leave.  He was done.  It was at an end now.  But he only made it a few steps before he was stopped by what his wife said next.  

“Why do you do this to us?  To your sons?”  Frigga asked.  There was a deep ache in her voice and Hodur startled when he realized that it was not a new ache.  Not one created by Thor’s banishment.  It as the ache of a sorrow of many years.  “Why do you drive them all away?”

“Woman--!”

“No!  For once, Odin, you will listen to me!”  Her hands that had been twisting in her dress to keep them under control raised up, one finger pointing.  “One by one you have driven our sons away.  One by one I have suffered the loss of three of my boys.  And now you have taken one more away from me.  You claim you know what you do, but you don’t.  You don’t see, or you refuse to see, what you are doing.”

Frigga took a breath and drew herself.  In that moment she was both the mighty queen and the powerful mother.  “If you touch Loki, if you take Loki from me, I will not even speak of what I will do.”  Her piece said, she turned and left through a side entrance.

Odin looked at the place where she had been.  Hodur could feel the racing thoughts of his father as he tried to get them under control.  Loki.  His youngest.  The son-not-of-his-blood.  The tool he wished to use that was a tool no longer.

Hodur felt cold.  What was he thinking?

Loki.  The last one left.  So different.  The one he could not predict.  He needed to be safe.  He needed to be protected.  With his eldest three no more and Thor’s fate a chance in the wind, Loki was the only he could place his hopes in now.  But would it be worth the risk?

~*~*~

Hodur shivered as the images shifted to another scene.  It was a later time.  Odin had gone in search of his remaining son.  But then he had felt a disturbance.  Someone was in the vault.  The Casket!

It was as he feared.  Odin froze on the steps leading down into the vault.  Before him, at the other end of the vault, was Loki.  His back turned to him.  Hands reaching before him and laid on the Casket.  “Stop!”  The desperate plea tore from his lips.  He could not allow Loki… he could not let him discover what he truly was.  

“I am cursed?”  Loki asked, and in that question Odin knew he had failed.  “No…”

“What am I?”  A thud rang in the vault as Loki set the Casket done.  Hodur knew that sound threaded through Loki’s voice.  Tight.  Lost.  Mind racing.  

Odin followed and admitted something he never thought he would.  “You are my son.”  No.  Not at first.  But he had become his son.  Yet as Loki turned Odin felt every part of him tense.  The dark blue skin, the raised lines, the blood red eyes…  As he watched the Jotun whispered away, but Odin could not see what he had seen.  Even as Loki returned to his Aesir appearance, Odin still saw the frost giant.    

“What more than that?”  Loki’s entire being at shifted.  His words were a harsh, demanding barely controlled rage.  He was hurt.  And he was scared.  Hodur could see that.  Loki felt lost and he desperately searched for something to hold on to.  Loki had never been one comfortable for allowing his true thoughts and emotions to show on his face.  So he hid them behind his words and his mischief.  But Hodur knew.  Father, Hodur silently begged.  Father please.  

Odin watched as Loki approached.  When he failed to answer, Loki demanded again, “The Casket wasn’t the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?”  Odin watched until the boy was at the foot of the stairs, staring up at him with shaded eyes.  “No,” he admitted.

As Odin spoke, he remembered.  And Hodur saw the memories with him.  “In the aftermath of the battle, I went into the temple.  And I found a baby.”  His father’s bare hands reaching down for the same Jotun newborn left on the bare ice.  It wailed for its parents.  It wailed for any sort of contact.  Hodur whimpered, feeling tears on his physical form.  “Small, for a giant’s offspring.  Abandoned.  Suffering.  Left to die.”  He felt Odin smile softly down at the baby.  A thumb gently soothed over the newborn’s bare head.  For all his hatred of frost giants Odin could not find it in himself to feel the same for the baby.  He saw all his own sons.  Tyr.  Tiny twins Baldur and Hodur.  Thor.  They had all been as such once.  

As he looked down he felt a change come over the baby.  The newborn quieted, reassured by the touch, letting out a soft and wondering coo.  From where Odin’s hands touched him the golden color of an Aesir spread over the child’s form.  Where once had been a blue-skinned, red-eyed jotun was now a rosy, green-eyed baby.  Then, then the newborn’s tiny smile.  That one smile that others, outsiders never believe.  The smile of a child to his parents.  And Odin knew in that moment that newborn was now part of their lives.

“Laufey’s son.”

Hodur stared.  No! No no no no no!  Father!  He could not believe what Odin had said.  It was the wrong thing.  At the wrong time.  Tell him Father!  Tell him what you felt that day, in that moment.  He was your son.  You loved him as yourself, as one of your own—

Loki’s reaction told of the damage done, the broken words barely making it past the tight throat. “…Laufey’s son…”  He could not look at his father.  He blinked and finally turned his head.  Hodur could see it.  Knew why he made that brief pause.  He had blinked away the growing tears.  

“Yes.”  Odin confirmed.  

Loki looked away.  His eyes darted everywhere and nowhere.  Hodur could hear his youngest brother’s thoughts racing.  His chest heaved, the breathes coming out in great gasps.  He was scared, frightened, waiting for a place to flee.  “Why?”  Loki demanded.  “You were knee deep in Jotun blood.  Why would you take me?”

Father, take care how you answer.  The truth.  Loki needs the truth of your heart.  He knows.  He always knows, their brother of words.  “You were an innocent child…”  Hodur heard the scream come from his own throat.  Even he could hear the emotionless tone, the absence of effort in his reply.  

And Loki heard it too.  “No.  You took me for a purpose.  What was it?”  He watched and he waited.  Odin made no reply.  For once he knew not what to do.  His mind was an utter blank.  

“TELL ME!”  The scream tore from Loki.  His entire being went from barely held calm to the rushing torrent of pain and emotions he felt.  The pain could be seen.  The pain could be felt.  

And then Odin finally reply.  “I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day.  Bring about an alliance, bring about a permanent peace… thru you.”

“…what…”  From the great roar of before, Loki’s question was now barely a whisper.  It was not the word of a grown man.  It was the broken word of a hurt child.  

“But those plans no longer matter.”

…what?  Hodur wanted to wrap his arms around his brother.  Why had he not been there?  How could he have been so far away, all of them so far away, to leave their brother unprotected.  How could their father not see what he was doing?  How could he not know the effect what all was said was having on Loki.  And Hodur knew what was coming.

Loki let out one gasp of pain.  Then it began.  “So I am no more than another stolen relic.  Locked up, here, until you might have use of me?”

“Why do you twist my words?”  Odin demanded.  Because that was what Loki did!  That was how Loki protected himself.  Father, don’t allow him to do that.  You must stop.  You must tell him.  Loki thinks himself utterly alone.  No longer a son, no longer a thing loved and full of worth.  Your words have made him into a tool he never knew he was, and he thinks himself a tool tossed to the trash.  

“You could have told me what I was from the beginning!  Why didn’t you?”  Hodur wondered the same.  As a child, he had suspected… but as a child, it hadn’t mattered.  Loki was the new baby brother just as Thor had been.  A brother and a friend dear, loved, precious.  

“I wanted only to protect you from the truth…” Odin admitted finally.  Truth?  How could the truth have hurt him?  Did Odin think that blood was the only thing that mattered?  Blood hadn’t mattered to his sons.  It was time that mattered to them.  Time.  Growing up together.  Being there for one another.  Fighting and loving and pain and healing and support.  It might be their parents who raised them but in the future it would be the siblings, the brothers, who would be there for one another.  To be so close enough that only thing to think of rivaling for it was the relationship with one’s mate.  

“What?  Because I…I’m…I’m the monster that parents tell their children about at night?”

Hodur waited for Odin to stop the words.  To reveal his own blood truth to his son.  Instead, once more, was silence.  Stop him!  He thinks himself a monster!  How could you not tell him about yourself, about all your sons?  He needs to hear it!  Somehow he has heard these stories and to be a frost giant is to be a monster.  You must correct it, Odin.  

Instead Odin only looked away and slowly sank to the stairs.  Odin, this is not the time for this!  You get up now.  Don’t you DARE go into the Odinsleep.  Your son is breaking down, having an identity crisis!  YOU GET BACK UP AND FIX THIS!

“You know it ALL make sense now!  Why YOU favored THOR over me all_these_years.  Because no matter HOW MUCH you CLAIM to love me, you couldn’t have a FROST GIANT sitting on the throne of Asgard.”  All of Loki’s pain and anger was punctuated in each word.

Odin raised a hand, reaching.  Too little, too late.  As the sleep took him Loki was left alone.  Hodur watched and felt all the anger drain out of him.  He felt the quiet fear spread over his youngest brother.  He slowly crouched, scared, the words plain on his face.  What had happened to Father?  Had the truth, had his anger done this to him?  His hands hovered and for a moment he was scared to touch him, like the jotun in him would reach out and devour him.  He finally saw that Father still breathed.  And he finally set his own hand to grasp his father’s.  

~*~*~

Hodur broke out of the thoughts and the memories.  He was suddenly back in the throne room.  Once more blind.  He wished he had stayed that way.  A keen rose from his throat and he covered his face with his hands, tears falling behind them.

“There is more,” Huginn said softly.

“More you need to see,” Muninn admitted.  

The ravens waited for Hodur’s reply.  The man finally regained enough of himself to nod.  

Then, once more, he saw.

~*~*~

It was not Odin’s thoughts and memories this time.  Not his, since he was now in the Odinsleep.  It was the thoughts and memories of the ravens.  Huginn and Muninn themselves.  The sat on the perches overlooking Odin’s bed.  Frigga, wife and mother, sat to one side.  Loki, littlest son and brother, sat on the other.  

“I asked him to be honest with you from the beginning.”  Frigga spoke softly.  She had not been told.  She had taken one look at Loki’s face and knew what had happened.  “There should be no secrets in a family.”

Loki did not look up at his mother, the mother of all his brothers.  “So why did he lie?”

Frigga leaned forward and her simple presence made her son look.  “He kept the truth from you so that you would never feel different.  You are our son, Loki.  And we your family.”  A few moments of silence.  Mother looked at son.  And son looked at mother.  “You must know that.”  

Loki did not answer.  He only looked down once more on the Allfather.  

“You can speak to him,” Frigga offered.  The ravens shuffled their feathers.  She was a wise woman.  She knew what Loki needed was words.  To be able to talk with the man he had always believed openly.  No hiding from himself, no hiding above others as Odin did.  

Though the ravens knew the words were what Odin had convinced himself, the words he had told his wife, it had failed long ago.  Loki was the youngest.  Loki was the baby in a family of five brothers.  He had always felt different.  They had seen and felt it.  It had been difficult growing up.  The only one who knew the extent had been Odin’s middle child.  What it was like to be the one who was different.  To feel unloved compared to the shining golden natures of their brothers.  

“You’re a good son.”  Frigga and Loki had spoken more while the ravens conversed in their way.  “We mustn’t lose hope that your father will return to us.  And your brother.”

The ravens saw how Loki raised his head.  The slight widening in his eyes.  How a flicker of emotion passed over his face – hope.  “What hope is there for Thor?”  Loki gently asked.  

“There’s always a purpose in everything your father does.”  Opps!  The queen had no idea.  That was not a good word for Loki right now.  “Thor may yet find a way home.”

Loki looked away and the emotion was gone.  He stood, hesitated a moment, then made to leave.  The doors opened and the guards outside kneeled.  Loki stared, unsure, as the priest entered and kneeled at his feet.  In his hands was Gungnir.  His father’s spear.  He looked over his shoulder to his mother, seeking answer.  With Odin in his sleep, Thor banished, and the eldest three sons kings of their own realms, there was only one left in the line of succession.  The youngest.  Loki.  

The ravens cawed their affirmation.  

All Hail the King!

~*~*~

The next Hodur knew he was rocked by an explosion.  Even in the memory he could hear the roar and fell the screams as the magic blew back on itself.  Though he knew he could not be harmed he threw his arms up to protect himself as the Bifrost tore apart. 

The gateway tore itself apart, falling into the reaches beyond.  The water beneath him steamed and boiled, rushing away.  Shards of the Bridge blew in a thousand different directions.  When he finally managed to see once more he saw two bodies fall from the sky.  Screams of fright tore from them.  

Thor!  Loki!  Instinct reared within him and Hodur sped towards the splintery edge of what remained of the bridge.  He had to make it to them in time.  He had to save his brothers!  Loki fell past, then Thor.  Snapping out, Hodur managed to grasp Thor’s ankle just as his brother managed to grab the speak which Loki held.  When Hodur looked down he saw that it was not his hand that had Thor’s ankle.  It was Odin’s.  

Loki looked between the two.  Thor, his brother. Odin, his father not-father.  Lost.  Scared.  Thor fought to keep his hold of the spear and locked his wrist painfully so it would not move.  He grunted, trying desperately to catch Loki with his other hand.  He tried not to look past his brother to what lay beyond.  He could not allow Loki to fall.  

“I could have done it Father!”  Loki shouted upwards.  “I could have done it.  For you!  For ALL of us…”  Hodur did not know exactly what they spoke of.  But he knew, behind the words, but Loki asked.  Reassurance.  Affirmation.  

Forgiveness.  

“No Loki…”  

Hodur screamed as the whisper came from their father.  This was not the time to tell him such a thing.  Loki needed answers, but the answer could have waited a few seconds.  Pull them up. Get Thor and Loki to land and safety and waiting arms.  THEN answer.  NOT while he is over a sucking abyss to the unknown.  

And he screamed as the blank slate spread over Loki’s face.  Thor saw it as well, a desperate cry tearing from him, “Loki, no!”  Loki thought himself lost.  Loki thought himself worthless.  Loki felt himself alone.

Loki felt he had no other place to go.  

Loki felt there was no other choice.  

~*~*~

Frigga jolted awake in her bed and without a second thought sprang from her bed.  She had barely tightened the belt to her covering robe when she sped into the throne room.  A hand went to her mouth at what she saw.  Hodur sat on the throne.  His hands covered his face and down them rolled slow dark beads.  His form shook violently and a desperate keen of weeping tore from him.  

Frigga raced up the stairs and took him in her arms.  Wings fluttered around them and she did not need to look to know that her husband’s ravens had taken flight.  “Hodur, my child.  What have you done?”

Hodur turned his face to her.  His face was smeared with blood and rolling tears.  She saw the cuts to his palms and then knew.  

Just what Hodur had done in hopes of helping his brother.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will admit now that this chapter of Hodur doing his detective work has been written for a LONG time. I think since or before chapter two even. This was the chapter I fully cried over while writing since it was putting alot of my own thoughts about scenes down (Loki's pain when he finds out his parentage, the way his face changes hanging off the Bifrost)


	10. Hidden and Revealed

Things began to happen quickly.

And still just as slow.

Loki could see that something was changing in his brothers.  They conversed a lot amongst themselves.  And all of a sudden one of the three was away while the other two visited him.  First Tyr.  Then Baldur.  Then Hodur.  They were up to something.  Part of his mind reared up with a grin.  He could smell a plan brewing.

Especially when Hodur appeared one morning with bandages wrapped around his palms.  He only gave a small smile when Loki asked after it.  Then he had taken a ring from his finger and presented it to Loki.  “I think you need to wear this from now on…”

The young sorcerer had taken it and turned it in the light.  It was simple, twisted glass set in a ring.  But as he held it he felt something race through him.  His magic!  Yet… small, and infantile.  “What… where did you get this?”

Hodur’s smile grew.  “It’s from your first try at magic.  Remember?  The—“

“The glass pitcher!  I shattered it!  I remember being so worried I wouldn’t be able to find all the shards and you’d walk over them in your room…  You kept this?”  Loki’s voice shook as he spoke.  The relief to have just a tiny part of his magic back...  As he set it on his own finger he noticed something more.  The surface of the glass was not clear, but had a nearly invisible red tint to it.  Blood.

Blood sparking with Hodur’s own magic.  His older brother sensed his surprise as he looked up, “I would not leave you unprotected when we are not here.  I think you will need it soon.”  He did not say more.  

Because he could not.  And neither could Tyr or Baldur.  

They all sensed her as she entered into the room outside Loki’s cell.  Quiet yet powerful.  One of the most steady presences in all their lives.

Mother.

Frigga.

Tyr was on his feet first.  “Mother!  What are you doing here?”  His eyes darted behind her and up the stairwell.  He saw no one.  Not even the guards.

“It is just I,” Frigga said softly.  She soothed her hands over her dress before folding them in front of her.  “I want to speak to Loki… I want to speak to my son.”  Her last words were a whisper.  Emotional.  Throat closing up.  Her eyes settled on the youngest.  Earnest and seeking.  

The three brothers looked to Loki.  How would he react?  What was it he wished?  His mouth moved soundlessly with no words coming forth.  

Finally, he could only nod.  

Hodur rose and moved to the wall of the cell.  One hand rose to open the way for her and the other stretched out to take one of her to lead her in.  She paused for a moment just inside the wall, her smooth hand inside her unseeing son’s.  With a touch her words were spoken.  Thank you for respecting your father’s wishes… so far.  

“I need to speak to all of you,”  Frigga began.  “There are many things to be said.  Things that should have been long ago, and things to be said now.  But first, if you will allow me, I would speak to you Loki.  Alone.”  She smiled softly.  “If you will let me.”  

Loki looked away.  His hands clenched within his lap as he thought.  Now she came to see him.  Now she came to talk.  After all this time.  But of everyone he held anger towards, even the anger towards the woman who had been his mother, it did not remain long.  “I will… for a little bit.”

He looked to his brothers and nodded his assent.  “It’s okay.  You can leave us for a while.”  Luckily his brothers did not make much protest.  But he still silently thanked them as each gave a murmur or touch before they left.  The moments after they left were stretched with silence.

Then Loki breathed.

“What is it you have come to say, Mother?”

~*~*~

Their mother’s arrival had been unexpected.  In all the time they had been in Asgard she had stayed away nearly as much as Odin had.  Yet their hearts gladdened that she had come to see them.  Loki had always been closer to Mother.

And her visit was also fortuitous.  

Because what they wished to do next needed all of them.  And they had been reluctant to leave Loki alone. 

And unprotected.  

“Allfather.”

Odin turned as he heard the dual-voice of his twin sons.  He had not heard that voice in a long time.  He had never been certain if such a thing was a trait of all twins, or just his own twin sons.  Since their birth they had been so opposite and yet so entwined.  Never before, or since, among the Aesir had twins been born.  Unbidden, visions and prophecies and possibilities came to his inner eye.  Light and Dark revolving.  Consumed.  Born again.  One brother after another slaying another.  The end of all things and the re-beginning when two were rise from the ashes.  

A branch untraveled.  

“Yes?”  Odin answered.  What could the boys want now?  He knew that his eldest three had been moving about Asgard gathering news on just what had happened with Loki.  Had they come to admit that they were wrong, and he right?

“We would speak with you,” Baldur began.  “If you would spare some time for us,” finished Hodur.  

His one eye narrowed.  “And what would you speak of?”

“Our realms.”  “We might be your sons, but we are also kings in our realms.”  The two looked between each other.  Odin had never understood the motion when Hodur could not see it, and Baldur knew he could not see.  “You have more experience than us.  And, since we are here, perhaps some things could be addressed.”

They wished to speak to him on matters of state?  Yes…  Baldur was King of Alfheim. And Hodur King of Svartalfheim.  In his anger at the twins’ departures he had cut off many connections with them and in turn with their realms.  The relations between Asgard and the two elvhen realms was strained at best.  If he could speak with them now…

“We shall find a private room where to speak.”  Odin turned and motioned for them to follow.

“Thank you, Allfather.”  “Thank you, Father.”

~*~*~

Tyr crept silently down the hall.  He was sure not to seem suspicious and was also sure not to make too much noise.  His twin brothers were distracting Odin.  And, as they thought, Odin had silently summoned his guards to follow them to their meeting.  Which meant that his private study was left unprotected.  Which meant the door was unlocked.  

Like Tyr himself, Odin was too confident when it came to some things.  Why lock the door when he had guards?  And who would ever come into the private area of the Allfather himself?

His sons of course.

Tyr slipped into the room and closed the door behind him.  A quick glance told him that neither the wolves or the ravens were present.  They would have meant trouble, and some quick thinking.  At some point or another all the brothers had come in here.  Whether it was a quiet request to see their father, or sneaking in when they thought he wasn’t looking.  And sometimes that sneaking had worked.

“Now, if I were to hide it, where…?”  He needed to find them.  His own decision regarding Loki, and most likely his brothers’ decisions, might hang in part on this.  

Tyr checked the desk first.  It was too obvious a place to hide them but he would not overlook anything.  He ignored the other letters and papers that littered the desk.  Those were not his to read.  He searched for hidden places, and found them, and found they were not the ones he sought.  They were too small.  So he moved to other objects around the room.  

There were many bookcases filled with books and scrolls along with many artifacts.  What he sought was not within plain sight… or could they be?  Might there be a secret chamber or niche behind one of them?  Tyr cracked his fingers.  He would try to be clever like Loki or Hodur in trying to find them.  Yet his strength was always there if he needed it.

He had just tried to move the third bookcase when the door burst open.

“Father!  I would have words with—!”  Thor burst in after the door.  And froze only a few steps in.  Brother stared at brother.  Thor midstride, Tyr tipping the bookcase.  One beat.  Two beats.  What would Thor do?  He had to know what he was doing in here.  Alone.  Father not within sight.  So it all came down to one thing.

And what would Tyr do if Thor told Odin?

Blessedly, Tyr did not have to make that choice.

“Mayhaps you should check the great stone in front of the hearth,” Thor whispered, almost as quiet as a wind.  Then he turned and thudded the door shut behind him.  “Father!?”  Thor continued his search.  And now his farce.  “Father, I would speak with you!”

Tyr released the breath he was holding.  

The eldest brother moved towards the hearth.  There was a great stone in front where the fire lay, just outside of where the heat would greatly affect it. Tyr moved the rug to reveal all of it.   It was larger than the others around it and the more he studied it the more he realized that the edges were different.  Not as sharp.  There was a slight, round indentation along one edge.  Just the same size as the end of Gungnir… 

Driving his heel into it provided the same effect that the speak would and the stone loosened to reveal the hiding space underneath.  And the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach only roiled more when he saw what he wanted to find…

And what he had been secretly hoping he would not.

~*~*~

“Tyr.  You will not tell us for certain?”  Baldur asked quietly as they walked deeper into the gardens.  He steadily watched the eldest brother.  Since his return Tyr had been roiling with barely contained anger.  His crossed arms flexed against themselves to keep them under control.  His hair and beard, if it were possible, were redder with fury.  

“No… I can’t… let it be my load.”  Tyr swallowed.  He did not wish to unleash himself on his brothers.  They did not deserve it.  Only one man did.  “I will only say that it is how you might already be suspecting.”

Baldur let go of a shaky breath.  What were they going to do?

The two finally arrived at the deep, true heart of the garden.  To outsiders, and even Odin, only Frigga was allowed to enter here.  It was a sacred place.  One she had created with her own hands.  But too was it a place created for herself and her children.  A ring of five trees with a bench under each.  Each tree had been grown from a tiny cutting of the World Tree, Yggdrasil, itself.  With the birth of each child Frigga had taken a piece of the tree and planted it here, along with the first cutting of the baby’s hair.  As the tree grew it had taken on tiny aspects of the child, so Frigga would always have a way to see after the health and wellbeing of her children.  

Tyr’s tree was a deep brown with red leaves.  Baldur’s tree had a silvery trunk with white leaves, and Hodur’s tree, entwined with his twin’s, had a dark trunk and dark leaves, dotted with pale flowers like stars.  Thor’s tree had a golden trunk and blue leaves that sparked at the touch.  Finally, the last tree, Loki’s, had a pale trunk with wisping patterns, dark green leaves, and also dotted with pale flowers.  

Hodur sat quietly before the last tree.  His face was turned upwards and his eyes were closed.  The same wind that rustled the leaves played with his hair as it fell from his shoulders to the grass.  Before the tree were strange remnants.  A rock here, a piece of thread there, dried bits of flowers and plants.  In his hand Hodur held one of the remaining stems.  

“Mother had a remembrance here… after she thought Loki lost to the void…” he explained quietly.  “I do not know when it was taken away… but she did it out of some happiness that Loki was alive.”  

“Milords!”  

The three brothers all started at the noise.  This was a secret and private place.  Never before had anyone else other than their mother been here.  Who could it be, and how had they been able to find their way to the heart?  To the circle of trees?  

A tall figure emerged from the garden by the side of Loki’s tree.  They were dirty, harried by what seemed a long travel by the roads.  Remnants of the garb of the border guard peeked out from beneath his cloak.  His height and board shoulders proclaimed him a man, but his face was hidden by a helm.  A helm was usually not much cause for shock, but in this case, it was.  The helm was carved from the thick skull of a bilgesnipe, something only permitted when the warrior had slain the massive and furiously rampant creatures.  A rare and dangerous feat.  

“Who are you and how did you get here?”  Tyr’s hand inched towards his axe.

“Oh, forgive me,” the man reached for the helm and removed it, “I found it was easier to travel swiftly when my identity concealed.”

Between his now revealed face and voice the man had to be younger than the three.  He had no hair on his face but ash brown curls crowned his head.  He might have been handsome, but it was evident he had suffered either a battle or some type of beating.  One side of his face was swollen and scratched with the eye shut from pain.  His bottom lip was split and yet it did not prevent him from giving a soft, easy smile.  The one open eye was hazel and twinkled with some sort of excitement he fought to keep down.  “Please, tell me I have not come too late…”

Such a statement would have caused confusion, if Hodur had not stretched out a hand for one of the stranger’s.  He laid it there freely, fingers and palmed calloused and knuckles raw.  Hodur drew his thumb quickly over the skin under his pinky.  An old, thick scar lay there. “Is it truly you?”

“Yes, Hodur.  It’s me, Sigyn.”  The man let out a soft laugh.  “I guess my voice must be a lot older since we have not seen each other in such a long time.”

Hodur turned to his brothers.  “Tyr, Baldur.  This is Sigyn.  He was Loki’s friend.  Always around us when Loki and I went anywhere.”  Sigyn smiled just as Hodur smiled.  The memories were bright and fond.  The blind king patted the bench next to him and Sigyn sat gratefully.  He sank into the stone, exhausted.  “Where have you been all this time?”

“I was sent to the southern most borders and not permitted to return.”  

The three brothers sucked in a breath.  The southern most borders was where the realm of Asgard drew closest to both Ginnungagap and Muspelheim.  It was a place that no one wished to go.  Even Odin hesitated to go there.  To be able to survive a single tour there as a border guard was considered a badge of honor and one that was not repeated.  It was rampant with dangers, both from the fire demons and the creatures of the Ginnungagap, the worst of which were the bands of bilgesnipe.  “Why?” Baldur whispered.  

Sigyn hesitated, looking down at the helm in his hands.  “Because the King sent me there, by his own word.”  It was obvious that he did not wish to speak ill of the Allfather, especially in front of his own sons.  But by that hesitation they knew the declaration to be true.  

Then he sat up straighter and in his eye was a bright light.  A light of hope and happiness.  “News takes a long time to travel down to the border.  When it came that Loki was lost… I lost myself as well.  I don’t know how I managed to survive.  But then the news came that Loki was alive, and returned to Asgard.  I knew then that not any word of a king would keep me away.  I needed to fight my way back to him.”  There was a short, uneasy laugh.  He motioned to his face.  “That’s how I got these.  There was probably an order to keep me from returning to the palace and I was attacked.  But I made it away and disguised myself so I could get here as quickly as possible.”

“Please,”  Sigyn pleaded, looking to each brother in turn.  “I must see Loki.  I know you love him as you always have and that you understand.  But if not, I will fight through you as well if I must.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sigyyyyyn~
> 
> I love Sigyn in the original mythology, what little we have of her. But I'll admit right now that I love writing male!Sigyn and those relationships with Loki. 
> 
> Also, Odin continues to be a horrible parent....or does he? Soon, it shall all come to a head.


	11. Stay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sigyn has arrived but the three brothers decide that it is still not time.
> 
> Meanwhile, two little ones decide to join the family.

It took much convincing from the three eldest brothers, but they were finally able to convince Sigyn to wait.  Just a little while, no more than a few days.  “We know you want to see Loki,” Tyr whispered, “but you are becoming our trump card.”

The young warrior glared.  He could finally see out of both eyes but the bruises still showed.  “Why?”

“Because more and more it seems that this all will not end well,” Baldur admitted softly.  “And we might just have to break many rules we were grown thinking were just.  When that happens, we need someone to protect Loki.  If anyone knew, even Loki, who that was beforehand, it would put everything in danger.”

Hodur touched Sigyn’s arm and calm washed over him.  “I know it is hard to wait, Sigyn.  It is even hard for us to allow Loki to stay in there while we try to convince our father… but I know if anything is to happen you will be more fierce in protecting him than even his own brothers.”  And Sigyn would.  Tyr and his brothers ran the risk of turning against or harming their parents if it came to breaking Loki free.  Sigyn, as an outsider, did not have that weakness.

Sigyn struggled to agree.  It was obvious in his face and eyes that he would rather run to the dungeons to join Loki.  But in that same moment Hodur could sense that the young warrior agreed with him.  “Then I shall follow, King Hodur.  But please, do not leave him in there any longer than he has to…”  A hand and his eyes drifted down to something belted at his hip.  A knife belt, filled with hand hewn daggers.  “Where do you want me in the time being?”

“Hidden and safe, but nearby.”  Tyr answered.  “Even we don’t know when everything will come to a head.”

“Ah,” and it was then that Sigyn grinned.  “That I can do.”  He picked up his helm of bone and set it over his head.  He was no longer Sigyn, friend of Loki and escapist, but the fierce warrior hidden beneath the skull of a bilgesnipe.  

~*~*~

“Brothers,” Loki called happily as he heard the familiar footsteps come down the stairs.  He set his book down on the side table and rose to meet them.  A change had come over him.  Though it was not obvious when others were around, he was slowly becoming calmer and happier.  Once more the shining eyes of their youngest brother burned above a small smile.  “Mother just left.”

Frigga, their mother, had been sneaking down to see Loki more often.  They had not heard that Odin had expressly forbidden her to do so, but since she had taken so long to do so, it was not surprising.  Yet too she had changed.  Perhaps something had changed.  The love of a mother was winning over the love of a wife.  The books suddenly in Loki’s room were from her own collection.  And there was a blanket over the bed with her distinctive weaving.  

“She has been coming to see you often,”  Tyr stated.  And within, he was glad.  

Loki nodded.  “Yes.  And I…”  He looked down at his hands, dragging them together.  “Knowing that she will still believe in me.  And all of you… I think I will be strong enough.”

“Strong enough?”  Baldur asked as he sat on the bed next to their brother.  He wrapped an arm instinctively around him.  Loki leaned close.  He rested his head on his shoulder.  

“To accept my punishment… If Odin wants my eyes and lips… or to live out my days here…”  His words shook ever so slightly.  Deep down he did not want to be imprisoned.  He did not want to be locked away from his brothers and mother.  But too was a change in the way he spoke.  Before he would not accept.  He would not admit that what was done was anything worth punishment.  Now… now…  “If… if I can see you… every now and then… I can…”

“Loki…”  Hodur could feel the wetness rising in his eyes.  Loki only shook his head, and Hodur could feel a shift in the air silently asking him to press no more.  At least not now. 

“Now, Loki.”  Tyr shot to his feet.  “This cannot be you giving up!”

“Tyr-!”

“No.  Our Loki never gives up.  Our Loki is always the one to think of a way when all the rest of us see no hope.  There is a difference, Loki.  A difference between accepting, and giving up.”

The youngest could only stare.  How… how had Tyr seen through him?  He was the oldest.  He was not the most bright.  Yet… and yet they were brothers.  There was no blood… but time.  Tyr could see it, just as the twins now saw it.  The laugh bubbled out of his throat, struggling and catching.  He covered his face with his hands as he tried to make it stop.  It would not.  He buried himself in Hodur’s lap, trying to hide his pain before it showed.  Hodur laid his protective arms around him, soothing into his hair and across his back.

The ring on his finger hummed.  The empty hallow where his magic was supposed to be reached out to the waves within his blind brother.  His brothers were here, right?  It was not some illusion?  Had his mother truly forgiven him, truly come to speak with him?  Had Thor?  The doubts and fears rose and fell, spilled out to the world guarded by his brothers.

Finally, it left him.  He turned his face back towards the cell.  He was not willing to allow his head to leave Hodur’s lap.  Not yet.  He looked up to their faces.  Hodur above him.  Tyr before him.  Baldur beside him.  His hand curled next to his mouth, to hide how his teeth bit at his own knuckle.  “There is someone outside for you, Baldur.”

Surprised, Baldur looked up.  And indeed someone waited outside the cell.  A Light Elf, her pointed ears peeking out from her wave of golden hair.  He shot to his feet when he saw her garb was that of a messenger from his own palace.  “What is it?  What has happened?”

The moment his twin opened a doorway he stepped out to hear her reply.  He saw that she struggled to remain calm, but fear and excitement warred in her face.  She held out a small scroll that was wrapped in a bright ribbon, one woven with the runes of Nan’na’s and his household.  “It is King Nan’na, your highness.  He has gone into labor with the twins.”  

Baldur could only stare numbly as his brain processed the news.  Then his heart leaped into a race quicker than any warhorse.  “My… my Nan’na is giving birth?”  His mouth gaped with all the things he wished to say and orders to give.  

Oh.

He turned and looked to Loki, pain tearing over his face.  Nan’na, he needed to be there with Nan’na.  And for his daughters, to be the first to welcome them into the world.  But Loki… he couldn’t leave Loki when he needed him the most.  “Loki…”

Loki sat up with a smile.  In fact, he rolled his eyes as he made shooing motions.  “Why are you even hesitating?  Go!  Be with him.  I would rather miss you than risk my brother-in-law’s wrath before I even met him.”

Baldur rushed forward and crushed him in a hug.  “Loki, thank you!  As soon as Nan’na and the girls are well, I will bring them here to meet you.”  He hugged him once more, but did not miss the look of shock on Loki’s face.

“Oh, wait!  Just a moment.”  Loki ran back to the bed.  Yanking one of the pillows from under the blanket he reached deep inside.  His hand returned clenched tightly around something.  Opening it revealed two tiny bracelets, delicate, woven out of tiny green threads the same shade as Loki’s shirts.  “I… I made these for them… when you said they would be born soon.  I… I know it is not worthy enough gifts for two princesses, much less my own nieces, but… will you give these to them?  I… I want them to know me.  Even if it’s just a little thing…”  

Baldur cupped them protectively in his hand.  “Of course I will, brother.  I would be honored to.”  He kissed his brother on the cheek and then turned to leave.

“Wait Baldur.”  Hodur stopped his twin.  He reached into his wide sleeves and brought out a small, carved back.  Setting it on his lap he opened it to reveal a small tuft of pure white hair.  Withdrawing just a few of the strands he held them out to him.  “This will be swifter than the Bifrost.  When you get out of the city burn them, and explain to Fenrir that you are my twin.  He will be gruff but will help to bring you to Alfheim”

He didn’t need eyesight to know there were looks of shock on their faces.  “There isn’t time for me to explain now.  I will later.  Just take it and go be there for your husband and children when they arrive.”  

~*~*~

The single eye of Odin gazed out over the city.  But it was not the city he saw.  It was the two forms that had just left, one that despite the age of a young man had the hair of starkest white.  Heimdall had sent word that a messenger had arrived from Alfheim.  And just as Odin thought the message was for his shining son, not him.  He did not need to eavesdrop to know what the news was.  Baldur’s firstborn, his own twins, were on their way into the world.  The very thought made his hand tighten around his spear.

There was one stroke of luck.  In the excitement and anxiety of a first child coming into the world, Baldur had not gone to see Frigga.  As soon as the messenger arrived he had headed to the Bifrost.  Frigga would remain in the dark to the fact she had grandchildren a while longer.  He hoped to keep it that way.

The breath froze in the throat of the Allfather as he caught sight of it at the edge of the city.  A flash of light and fire.  Out of that spark a whirl of smoke.  And out of that smoke the great hulking figure of a giant wolf.  A white wolf.  Baldur spoke to it for a few moments.  Fenrir answered in turn, the deep hum of his voice heard from even here, then lowered his shoulders.  Baldur and the light elf leapt on his back and the moment they settled the wolf was gone.  Odin watched Fenrir bound between worlds in a few steps before arriving in Alfheim.  

He turned away and finally regained his breath.

It was coming to a head.  Tyr, Hodur, and Baldur had finished in their search into news regarding Loki.  They had not come and spoken to him, had not admitted their father was right.  So he could only conclude that they still believed Loki’s lies; that they conspired against him.  They would not turn away from the people and realms they had bound themselves to.  They would not abandon the monstrous children birthed from their loins.  Now Hodur had revealed one of the monsters at his beck and call.  Who knew what other creatures his sons controlled between them?

~*~*~

Loki had just turned the page when Hodur sleepily raised his head.  His two brothers had gone to sleep with the night.  He just wanted to finish this chapter and then he would join them.  He had missed his books. His brothers had managed to get him a few and their mother had brought him more.  He had forgotten all the books of stories and tales she had kept in her collection from when they were all children.

Hodur blinked.  And the stars in his eyes were brighter than normal.  “The girls are here…”

It took the youngest brother’s mind a moment to understand.  When he did Hodur felt the excitement rise within him.  He smiled sleepily and took Loki’s hand in his.  “Our nieces?”

“Yes, they are both now here.  The second took her first birth moments ago…”  Hodur leaned his head back down against the bed.  It was a bond that was hard to explain and even harder for outsiders to understand.  He and Baldur were the only twins among the Aesir and he had yet to find any other among the people of Asgard.  But there were twins in other realms.  So it was that, as womb-mates, same-births, the twins could always sense each other.  Even if they were separated by their very realms.  He could feel the excitement fluttering in Baldur’s chest.  He could feel the love swelling in his heart.  He could feel the tears falling down his cheeks as he held his daughters for the first time.

“Soon, Loki,” Hodur whispered as he fell back to sleep.  “Soon.”

~*~*~

 “It’s here, Loki.”  Hodur spoke in the morning as the small scroll was slipped in his hand.  It was the letter they were waiting for.  It was plain, tied with a simple string, unlabeled.  As Hodur unrolled it a crisp scent of leaves filled the air for a moment.  Thick, slightly larger than normal letters filled the page.  They were letters that moved and rose up as Hodur ran his fingers over it.

It was a technique Hodur had experiment and developed himself.  The one adversity he could not overcome with his blindness was the ability to read.  He could not see the words and as a child all he could feel from books was the page.  He did not mind being read to, but then he ran into the availability and wishes of the other person.  So Hodur had turned to magic to allow him to read whatever and whenever he wanted.  He used his magic to manipulate the words on the page and the substance they were written in.  They would rise out or above the page enough for Hodur to run his fingers over them and in turn be able to read.  After that he had always written and read words in this way.

Loki eagerly leaned against Hodur’s shoulder as he read aloud.  “ ‘The twins were born in the high afternoon yesterday.  My dear Nan’na is tired, and who would not be?  But he is recovering quickly and as nervous as I am.  It’s as if we are afraid the girls will pop and flutter away from us.  Asta was born first, wild and loud, but when Nan’na held her and I looked on we both swear she smiled.  Then a little while later her sister Kata arrived, not with a cry but with a merry coo.  I never imagined anything so tiny could be so perfect.  Were we so small, Hodur?  My husband and daughters are vibrant and gaining strength so I feel that soon we will travel to Asgard so the girls can meet their uncles.  With all my love not already in my mate and children, Baldur.’ ”

The imprisoned mage found himself smiling.  And with trails of wetness falling down his cheeks.  “Are you crying, Loki?”  Tyr teased.  A pale hand darted out and yanked on his beard.  “Not crying, stupid.”

“Stop it you two,” Hodur said with a good-natured, but longsuffering sigh.  “Am I going to have to put you on opposite sides of the room?”  The two continued to tease each other.  Hodur once again ran his hand over the letter.  He could not wait to meet his twin’s children, twins themselves.  There were more like Baldur and he in the world.  How excited Malekith could be when he heard the news!  He would now have cousins to play with.  And, hopefully, one or both the uncles he was missing.  

“Tyr,” Hodur asked softly.  He was loathe to break the happiness of the air.  But he had to.  “Is it as you suspected?”  He held the letter out to his eldest brother.  Tyr had had a plan, whispered quietly just before Baldur had left.  Something to confirm or deny the suspicions he was keeping to himself.

Confused, Loki watched the merriment drain out of Tyr.  He took the letter from Hodur and held it limply.  A change came over his face.  Fierceness entered his eyes.  He remembered those eyes of Tyr that came just before entering a battle.  He folded the letter and handed it to Loki.  “It is, Hodur.”

“What is?”  Loki asked.  For all his cleverness he could not fathom what his brothers spoke of.  Was there a plan?  A plot?  He quickly realized it was one that Tyr kept to himself.  Not even Hodur knew.  Tyr shook his head and instead ruffled Loki’s dark hair.  “Not yet, Loki.  Not yet.”  He turned back to Hodur and rested his other, great hand on his shoulder.  “When Baldur returns, that is when we shall do it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baldur little twin girls are born! Both names were taken from Old Norse; Kata means merry and cheerful, and Asta means love and affection.
> 
> Now just what has Tyr been up to, and what will the three eldest sons of Odin do now?


	12. Conflict

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers break Loki free of his prison. And all the things that follow, follow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's one chapter left. Thanks to the prompter for incubating such a great prompt that I could give birth to. It is now grown and on its on XD
> 
> I think this chapter is complete, but I might tweek it every now and then.

It was only a few days later that just what his brothers had been doing was revealed the Loki.

Word made its way into the prison.  It was not from the guards or the occasional servants, but by whatever means Tyr and Hodur had set up.  Baldur was returning.  And he was not alone.  It was an entire envoy from Alfheim.  He was not returning just as a brother, but as King of Alfheim.  His husband, King-Consort Nan’na, was with him, along with their newly born daughters and a retinue of servants.

Baldur traveled before them to inform Asgard and prepare a place for them.  

“Thank you,”  Tyr said as he nodded to the informant who kept to the shadows outside the cell.  He took in one breath.  He released one breath.  Then he turned to his brothers.  No longer was he Tyr, eldest son, eldest brother.  He was Tyr, Warrior-King.  “Do it Hodur.”

Loki looked on.  With a simple movement of his eyes, no raising of hands or forming of runewords, all the guards in the prisons froze in their spots.  Despite his current lack of magic Loki could feel the powerful force his brother wielded.  Now he remembered why the scholars and advisors to the Allfather had feared his blind son.  

The walls of the cell, fashioned by the Allfather himself, crackled against Hodur’s magic.  They held, straining.  But it was only for a moment.  With a tearing the wall to the outside shattered.  Rising smoothly to his feet Hodur held out a hand to him.  “Come Loki.”

Loki looked at him.  He looked into the eyes of his blind brother.  The stars within his eyes blazed.  He took the hand and stood with him.  For the first in a long time, he was hesitant and unsure.  “Where are we going?”

“Away from here.  No longer will you be imprisoned.”  Hodur stepped from the cell slowly, his bare feet sure on the ancient stone.  They paused just for a moment outside the cell, long enough for Tyr to wrap a cloak around Loki.  They did not hide his face with the hood, though.  They left it down.  So everyone would be sure just who it was that walked between them.

They made no move to hide themselves as they left the prison.  Every guard and servant they encountered as they walked was frozen in place by Hodur’s magic.  They did not make the leave the city, however.  They walked into the place that had been their childhood home:  the palace of Asgard.  But not to the throne room.  Tyr and Hodur whisked Loki up the staircases and the backways until they reached the secret side hallway that led above the throne room.  Loki remembered it.  It led to a secret and private alcove that overlooked the throne room.  Often as children the princes had come here to spy on meetings their father had forbidden to them.

Tyr took his hands.  “Stay here Loki.  You will be kept safe.  Trust in us.  We would rather whisk you away now, simple and easy.  But Father needs to answer for this, and you deserve to hear what he has to say.  And what he doesn’t say.”

Then Hodur came close and leaned his forehead against Loki’s.  He breathed slowly, exuding some of his magic into his brother.  It was small, whatever could be passed along by his breath, but it calmed Loki.  They knew it was a long shot in any occasion for Odin to return his magic.  But in that as well laid Hodur; it would take time, but he was powerful enough to reverse what their father had done.  “Keep hidden, but listen with your ears and watch with your eyes.  Your brothers do this for you.”  

The two left.

Loki’s hands hovered in the air.  He could only look on it seemed.  Was he… free?  Was he truly out of his cell?  It was a dream.  It had to be.  He was really back in his cell, alone, forgotten.  This was all some feverish and desperate dream of his heart, aching for his brothers and family and life and home…

A sound shifted somewhere nearby and Loki snapped to attention.  “Who is there!?”  He demanded in a harsh whisper.  The figure emerged from the shadows.  The tall, broad shouldered profile of a warrior.  He did not recognize his presence; how could he without his magic?  Was it a trap?  Had his brothers’ plan been discovered by Odin?  His breath froze in his throat as he looked at the man’s head.  A helm made from a bilgesnipe skull.  He had heard and seen of this few men, at times feared even more than Odin.  His hands rose.  Loki shrank back against the wall behind him.

They only removed the helm.

“Hello Loki…”  His voice was soft and kind.  For a moment he looked uncertain.  His fingers nervously played at the helm.  His lips opened and closed as he struggled to find what to say.  Loki glanced over his face, bruised and split.  Had he been in a fight?  The man looked up again, once more smiling, red brushing over his cheeks.  “Do you remember—“

Loki knew those gentle eyes.  He remembered those unruly curls.  He held that lopsided smile deep down in his heart all this years.  He threw himself into his waiting arms, keening Sigyn’s name as he buried against his neck.  His heart fluttered as if to burst.  _Sigyn, Sigyn, Sigyn_ , it cried as it beat.  He had never thought he would see him again.  Sigyn wraps his arms around him and holds him close.  And for the first in a very long time Loki feels truly safe and protected.  

“Sigyn…”  Loki finally drew back and his voice was little more than a whimper.  He touches his face, pale fingers gently laying against the curls.  Sigyn looks back into his eyes.  In that moment he realizes that Sigyn is crying too.  A rough hand cups his cheek, thumb gently stroking over the bone.  It is the warmest touch Loki has ever felt.  “Where… how?”

Suddenly all the pain and anger sparks inside him.  Where has Sigyn been all this time?  Why hasn’t he been to see him?  Why didn’t he write to him or at least answer the letters Loki sent to him?  Didn’t he know that Loki needed him?  Sigyn takes all the abuse and the pain quietly, still holding him as Loki cries out.  When he is finished Loki does not push away.  He leans his head on the spot between Sigyn’s shoulder and chest, unwilling to let him go.

When did Sigyn get so tall?

Sigyn leads him to a bench just outside the alcove.  His voice is just as gentle as Loki remembers, only deepened with maturity and age.  “I never meant to leave, Loki.”  He begins, still holding Loki’s hands.  Loki cannot stop stroking the childhood scar on his hand on the skin below his pinky.  “I should have fought more.  I should have resisted even if it killed me… I… I..”  Sigyn dragged a hand over his face and tried to start again.

He looks right into Loki’s eyes as he begins to tell of it from the beginning.  

“Remember the day I was promoted to the head of the palace guard?”  Loki nods.  He remembered that day so long ago.  Back when they had both just come into adulthood.  His three eldest brothers were no longer in Asgard.  Thor, always off getting into trouble with his friends.  “I had waited until then.  I thought the position would not be such a bad one to be in, since it has high respect.  And I knew Odin always speaks to the new head of the guard in private.  I knew I could ask him then.”  Loki remembered that too.  The way Sigyn had sent a secretive, sneaky smile in Loki’s direction before the rest had left the throne room. 

Loki felt something reach up from the pit of his stomach and take hold of him.  He asked, soft as a breeze.  “What did you ask him?”

Here Sigyn fumbled, the blush returning to his cheek.  “I asked his blessing to ask you if I could begin courting you.  Since we were children I knew I never wanted to be parted from you, a-and I knew in my heart I could not imagine life without you.  I knew I wasn’t much.  There wasn’t anything spectacular I could offer the realm.  But I could offer myself to you.  I thought between earning myself a respectable position, and with the twins’ own marriages to men… that he would not mind if I courted you.”

Loki doesn’t need Sigyn to go any further to know what had happened there, in secret, in the throne room.  Sigyn had not needed to go to his parents at all.  He could have courted Loki without any respect to his family.  He could have asked him to marry him right then and there.  But he was trying to do what was right, to respect that Loki was a prince and to honor his family.  Odin had torn that all away.  “He forbade it.  And sent you away to separate us…”  That, of everything, left him even more numb then he had been in the vault.

Sigyn nodded.  “Then he sent me to the borders and forbade me to return.  I think he figured to silence me, either under the threat of death at desertion or to be killed trying to keep the border.”  Loki whimpers at the words.  He gripped Sigyn’s hand to reassure himself that, truly, Sigyn is sitting next to him and not some ghost.  “I wrote so many letters and snuck them out when I could… I never knew what to think when no reply came.  Had Odin intercepted them?  Were you angry with me?  Had I read so wrong into the bond we shared?”

He can feel Sigyn grow tense and unsure underneath his hands.  When he looked into those hazel eyes he can feel the love and see the fear.  “I-I understand if you don’t feel the same.  Never felt the same.  B-but I wanted you to know.  And I knew when I heard you were still alive I needed to see you.  To protect you and-“  Sigyn blundered on, trying to say everything on his heart.  

Loki silenced him with his lips.  He drew close to him, arms thrown around his neck, pressing as close as he can.  For a moment Sigyn is shocked.  Then he begins to respond.  Then he closes his arms once more around Loki and simply holds him.  The kiss is hard and fast.  The kiss is slow and gentle.  Loki cannot stop himself from crying into the kiss.  All his walls, all his protection is crumbling down around him.  Just as they always had around Sigyn.  He pulled back for a moment, laying their heads cheek to cheek.  “You idiot.  I always loved you.”

His hands dropped to Sigyn’s back to position himself better.  His hands froze.  Underneath the thin material of Sigyn’s shirt, he felt it.  Large scars.  Long, welting, knotting scars of flesh.  And they covered his back.  “Did Odin to this?”  Loki demanded, voice icy.  His Sigyn has been scarred.  His Sigyn had been hurt.

Sigyn only shook his head.  “No.  This one,” he nudged the bilgesnipe helm with his foot, “got rid of the ones the Allfather gave me.  I might have finally taken his head, but he made sure I wouldn’t forget it… Oh!”  Sigyn moves as if the news reminded him of something.  He reached under the bench and withdrew a small wrapped bundle.  He presented it to Loki and eagerly looked on until he unwrapped it.  A knife belt, fashioned to exactly fit Loki.  It was already armed with wicked daggers.  Each and every one was hand hewn out of biglesnipe teeth with the creature’s bones as the handle.  “While I lay recovering I made these for you.  I know you prefer the not-so-obvious in combat.  You’ll need them when your brothers lead the escape…”

Loki allows his hand to ghost over them.  They are exquisitely made.  As soon as one is in his palm he knows they are crafted better than any dwarven weapon.  He can see Sigyn, stuck on his stomach while his ribboned back heals.  His hands working at the bones and teeth of his kill.  The decision to fashion them into something of worth and use for the one he loves…  “Thank you, my Sigyn,” is all he can say before he gently kisses him once more.  

~*~*~ 

They heard movement coming from the throne room.  Sigyn led him inside, where they could see and hear but not be seen.  He only leaves Loki for a moment to retrieve his helm, don his arm, and gather his weapon.  When he returned they sat and they watched.  Sigyn is pressed against him the whole time.  The warmth of his body and gentle strength of his hand a reassurance.  

Odin enters first.  He cast his sight about, as if expecting someone.  He is alone for but a moment as two figures emerge from one of the side halls.  Hodur, and with her arm wrapped through his is their mother, Frigga.  She does not understand what goes on.  Yet on her face is the revelation that here, now, she will understand.  

“Where are your brothers?”  Odin demands.  And from here, away from his presence and his gaze, Loki can tell that he is nervous.  

“They will arrive soon.  But they do not need to be here to know what we all ask.”  Hodur is drawn to his full height, as he always was.  He is ever-calm and ever-sure.  “We ask for Loki’s release.”

Frigga draws in a breath.  And Odin?  He only laughs in the face of his son.  “Release him?  Why would I release him?  Just because you ask you think I will end the punishment he has earned?”

Hodur released his mother’s arm.  He steps closer.  Even though he cannot see, he stares straight into Odin’s eye.  For a moment the old man holds.  Then he has to look away.  “We have searched, and looked, and listened.  Just as you asked of us, Father.  We know what Loki did and has done… but we also know what was done to him.”

Odin whirls on his son, hand tight on his spear.  For a moment Loki sees the spear flying through the air and pinning his brother to the wall, but it is just a fear.  In that moment Hodur’s twin Baldur runs excitedly into the throne room.  “Mother, Father!  There you are!”  For a split moment Odin’s angering is on his shining son and then it is masked.  “I thought you away at my return.”

Baldur approached their mother and excitedly took her hands.  “I need many rooms prepared and a feast begun.  I know I should have given you more time but as soon as Nan’na was well I wanted to bring them here to see you.”

“…them?”  Frigga looked between her sons and her husband.  Confusion is plain on her face.  She knows of Nan’na… to a point.  She knows he is her son’s mate.  It is then Loki knows that she is not aware he is the carrying-father to her granddaughters.  

“My daughters, Mother?  Surely you read about them in my letter.  That’s why I left!  Nan’na was giving birth and I needed to be at his side.  I mean it’s not the most spectacular envoy, just my husband and the twins along with servants and guards.  But since they are now the first girls in the family I wanted to present them to their grandmother first.”  Baldur innocently turns to their father.  And there he is no longer their second eldest child.  Not the shining son, the beloved, the truthful.  He knows what Odin has done, and he has played his own trick.

“Letter?  There was no letter…”  She turns to the Allfather.  “What is the meaning of this Odin?”  

There is not time for Odin to replay.  A strong, powerful voice floats out of the darkness of another hallway.  “Here is the meaning, Mother.”  Tyr emerged into the throne room.  He held something aloft in one hand and carried a large bundle in the other arm.  When he entered the light it was soon revealed that it was a massive stack of letters.  Bound together.  Some are opened.  Many are not.  

By the looks on the twins faces, they had not been aware of them.

By the rage on Odin’s face, he knows exactly what they are.

“BOY!”  

The screaming command did nothing to deter the eldest brother.  He held the bundle aloft and then smote it to the ground.  The bundle exploded and spilled its contents everywhere.  Letters and scrolls.  Many differing types of paper.  Writings of distinct hands.  The room was filled with the massive ruffled of pages.  Then, it is silent.  

Silent.

Tyr still held the single letter in his other hand.  He looks to his mother, then to Odin.  “Here is the letter Baldur sent before him, telling of his daughters’ birth.  Put into your hiding place.  Tell me, Odin.  How long have you kept your family apart?”

Odin did not answer.

"I found them before. But I could not think, could not fathom you would so willingly sabotage us. So I told Baldur to do something for me before he left. To send a short letter, simply stating the girls were born. Then to send a second letter, one with all the detail he normally would, by our secret ways. Would you like to know which letter you have here?"

Odin still did not answer.

The others did.

“These… these are the letters I sent to my children.  My sons.  Asking of their homes.  Asking after their happiness.  What they did.  Would they come home to visit.  Would they mind if I visited them…”  Frigga’s hands trembled.  But her voice did not.

Baldur crouched and soon found his own letters.  “Here are my letters.  Letters to my mother.  Letters my brothers still at home, Thor and Loki.  How they fared.  Did they wish to visit me.  The invitation to my wedding to Nan’na.  Wondering if my brothers would like to visit me.”

Hodur did not need to crouch.  With the wave of his hand his letters came to him.  “And mine as well, Odin.  Every letter I ever sent to my family.  My mother.  My brothers.  Both to Loki and to Thor.  Explaining why I left, why I married my D’urden.  Offering to pass on my wisdom as a king to my brothers in their training.  Informing you of the birth of your first grandchild.”

Frigga gasped.  Her hand shot to her mouth.  Tears glittered in her eyes.  Hodur turned his face to her and nodded.  “His name is Malekith,” he added softly, “he is a young boy.”

When he turned back to Odin the softness was gone.  “But these are not the only letters you kept, is it?”  He raised his hands over the letters and before Odin could stop him the words sprang to the air.  Every word read aloud and every letter completed to each ear.  Thor, hesitant and unsure at first.  Would he be a good king?  He was nervous to tell his fears to their mother and father.  Surely his brothers could help him.  Surely his brothers could reassure him.  But as the years passed his voice changed.  He became sure.  He became prideful.

Loki.  Alone.  Suddenly all alone.  The pain he felt at the disappearance of his friend Sigyn.  The times he wrote to his brothers in their kingdoms.  He wanted to be a good king.  He knew there was a chance that if could go to either Thor or he, and he wanted to be as good a king as possible.  Could he come to them?  Surely between seeing how Asgard and their kingdoms were ruled he would know the correct path.  Then the tone became desperate.  Could no one else see how Thor was falling?  If he became king he feared the pain and devastation that would follow.  He had to stop it.  Somehow.  

Then the letters between Loki and Sigyn, separated.  Loki, wondering.  Where was he?  Was he okay?  Why had he left without saying goodbye?  Had something happened?  Had… had he done something.  Sigyn, trying desperately to tell Loki.  He loved him.  He had asked Odin’s permission to court him and was punished.  He had always loved Loki.  Somehow, someway, he would return to Loki.  Even after the time they thought Loki dead, he had still written to him.  Even without a reply, even without knowing if they were ever received in the first place, they kept writing to one another.  

“Why?”  Speaking or not speaking, each son asked.  And it was then Loki realized it.  Each and every one had ceased to call Odin father.  

“Because I had to!”  Odin exploded.  His voice crashed against the pillars.  His anger broke against the ceiling.  “Because I could not risk any of you foiling yet another of my plans.”

The words left Odin heaving.  The words left his sons and wife reeling.  Except Hodur.  A pillar of calm.  He folded his hands together, his sightless eyes still turned in the direction of the Allfather.  “Loki,” was all he said.

“Of course Loki!”  Odin turned toward the throne.  He smote the end of Gungnir on the ground as he sat heavily.  He would not look on any of them.  He dragged a hand through his hair and beard.  “Who else would there be?  He was the only one I had left!  Tyr, my firstborn, my strongest.  Wandered off!  Off to a primeval world of nothings and wooed by Death herself!  Baldur, my greatest, my shining!  There were so many I could not choose what I wanted to do!  But then you had to take it away, didn’t you?  You had to make yourself as tainted as your twin!”

Odin jabbed a finger at his middle son.  “I should have killed you when you emerged from the womb!  I should have never hesitated!  Ill formed, deformed, what Aesir has ever been without his eyes?  There shouldn’t have been a surprise when you ran off, forsake all we ever gave you, ever did for you?  And for what?  To sleep in some man’s bed?”

Frigga had to restrain both her sons.  Baldur, leaping to his twin’s defense.  Tyr, moving to join him.  Hodur never flinched through any of it.  Even if it had never been spoken so plainly to the waking ear, he had lived with it all his life.  Odin calmed somewhat.  “Then there was Thor and Loki.  I had to protect them.  I had to keep them safe.  Safe from you; safe from their very own brothers!  It was perfect!  Both would be trained to be kings as was their right.  Thor, for Asgard.  And Loki, for Jotunheim.”

“And how did you figure to do that?”  Tyr demanded.

“When the time was right,” Odin waved the demand away.  “I would mold him and then I would place him on the throne of the Frost Giants.”

“Mold him?”  Baldur spate out.  “You kept everything from him!  You took everything from him!”

“Because I had to!  What need would he have for friends in Asgard if he was to rule another realm?  Let him find friends amongst the jotuns.  And what need for a lover here?  His queen would need to be among Jotunheim for him to rule.  Besides, I would not let that boy, that thing, taint him as those elves did to you.”

“Sigyn…”  Frigga clarified.  Her whisper was one of horror.  She suddenly remembered Loki’s childhood friend.  How close they had been.  How heartbroken he had been when Loki had come to her, begging her help with he had disappeared.  Hidden up in the alcove Sigyn’s hand tightened on Loki’s.

“Then why not tell him he was a frost giant from the beginning?” Tyr spoke again and his voice was dangerously low.  “You knew.  And you told Mother, and I.  You swore to me you told the rest of my brothers!  I had no reason to treat him differently, and neither did they!  But you lied to me.”

For the first time since the confrontation began, Odin fumbled to reply.  “I did not wish him to think himself a monster.”

“That is a lie.”  Hodur countered.  “For all your wisdom, you knew that revealing it so late in life would damage him.  He would suddenly find himself alone and helpless, and then meekly go to his new place on Jotunheim.  A clean, easy break for you.  That is why you kept the whole family from him.  That is why you never allowed him to know the truth:  that all your sons are part frost giant.  That _you_ are half frost giant.  That grandmamma Bestla, _your_ mother, was once the Queen of Jotunheim.”  To provide punctuation to his points, Hodur’s words gave off frost as he spoke.  

In the silence that followed Hodur backed down.  And Baldur took his place.  “Odin, there is no excuse for the actions Loki took himself.  He did cause chaos, and he did cause death.  And that is worthy of some punishment, some ramification.  But more than this is that there is no excuse for what YOU have done.  To all of us, but especially TO Loki.  Many, many things would not have happened if it had not been for you, Odin Allfather.  And locking Loki away for the rest of his life will do nothing to fix it.”

Tyr, Baldur, Hodur, and Frigga.  The three eldest sons.  The three eldest brothers.  His wife.  Their mother.  The four stood together.  Baldur continued, “We ask that you release Loki.  He knows now, admits now, that some of what he did was wrong.  And that it is deserving of punishment.  Banish him from Asgard if you wish.  Tell him that he must right the wrongs he did, both on Asgard, Midgard, and Jotunheim.  But locking him away in the dungeons and forgetting him is not the answer.  It is not right.”  He stepped closer to his father, voice softening.  “Please.”

Loki held his breath.  What would Odin say?  Part of him, a distant, forgotten part long thought shriveled and gone, rose its head in hope.  Please.  Please Father.  Forgive me…

“No.”

Loki turned his face away and hid it in Sigyn’s chest.  Guiding him gently, Sigyn helped him to his feet and led him away.  

“Then you leave us no other choice.”

Odin looked up from his throne.  And his heart was cold.  What had Tyr just said?  Did he suggest?  Did he even dare?  A movement from the pillars caught his attention.  His brain did not fathom what he saw there.  Loki, huddled close to a stranger, pain evident across his face and in his eyes.  A strange warrior protectively at his side, a bilgesnipe helm covering his identity and a atgeir hewn from the creature’s bones grasped in his hand.  He jumped to his feet to stop them-

And found it pressed against Mjolnir.

“Father,”  Thor asked.  There was a gentle respect in his voice, but his powerful body was tense.  He held Mjolnir against him and did not move it.  “Let them go.”  It was half a demand and half a plea.  He would not help them escape, but he would not hunt them down in Odin’s stead.    

They did not turn.  They did not wait for what Odin had to say.  No more would they wait for the word of Odin.  They simply turned and left.  The three brothers joined Loki and Sigyn, forming a protective ring around them.  It did not escape them that one more walked beside them.  And her steps were filled with determination.

Loki was free.  

Loki was free of Asgard.

They had just made it through most of the city when the shouts started.  Voices raising with fear and alarm.  But it was not at the sudden appearance of their youngest prince, of he supposed to be locked away.  They pointed to the sky at the edge of the realm.  Soon a trumpet blast drowned out the screams, followed by Heimdall’s voice.  “INVADERS!”

Frigga’s eyes widened in shock.

“Hey, don’t look at me!”  Tyr threw his hands up.  “It’s not me.  I can’t say that for Hela, but trust me, you know when Death is invading, and it is not her.”  

Baldur turned to look at his twin.  It was not he.  He had left his envoy, a small army really, within sight of the realm but well outside firing distance.  They knew to wait until they returned with Loki.  Because, by the sun, he’d be damned if he allowed his husband and daughters within touching distance of Odin.  And it could not be Sigyn, for Sigyn only had himself.

Rounding the corner to the bridge, they saw what had raised the alarm.

A massive thing.  A black ship, a foreign make compared to those of Asgard.  It hovered by red engines over the water.  At least, until it crashed into one of the pillars.  Way up by the observation deck of the ship, a door opened and a little head appeared over the guardrail.  “HI DAD!”

Hodur threw a hand over his face and groaned.  “Malekith…”

“I brought the ship just like you asked!  To free Uncle Loki!”  A skinny arm waved as he talked.  The little boy gasped excitedly and suddenly was within danger of falling over the rail.  An older boy appeared behind him.  “Wait, is that Uncle Loki???”  And before the older boy could react the boy threw himself over the railing.  Frigga gasped but Hodur made no move to catch him.  A few feet from the ground shadowy magic flared and gently deposited him.  Eagerly he bounded over to stand in front of Loki.

There was no one else he could be but Malekith, Hodur’s son.  It was true he had the white hair and dark skin of a Dark Elf, but Hodur was in the shape of his face.  His eyes were a brilliant blue, but if one looked into them, it was like looking into the face of the moon.  Between his collarbones was a dark gem fastened into the shape of a many-pointed star.  He rocked on his feet, finally standing on tip toe to get closer to Loki.  “Wow…” The young boy whispered in awe.  “Hi!  I’m Malekith!  Dad told me lots about you!  I brought the ship!  We’re gonna bust you out and take you home!  I can show you my room and all my books.  Can you be my new teacher?  Dad says you know magic, like him and me.  Do you really like tricks?  Can you teach me any?”

The boy babbled on.  He was excited in the way of all children.  He was silenced, however, when Loki fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around the child.  Malekith blinked in surprise for a short moment and then returned the hug, humming happily.  Loki saw the other boy appear from the ship; white hair, black skin, several years older, and his eyes only for Malekith.  A small flying vessel, enough for one man, pulled up beside him.  Another Dark Elf, who bore a resemblance to the boy and wore a circlet of moonstone about his brow.  It was hard to miss how he was armed to the hilt with swords.  

“D’urden.”  Hodur asked pointedly.  His husband made a gruff sound, glaring between the two boys.  “Don’t ask of me!  One moment I’m watching the fleet and the next moment the boys are gone with the lead ship!  Algrim!  You should know better.”

“I’m sorry, sir.”  The older boy, Algrim, offered.  Against his shoulder Malekith snickers.  Loki decides that he likes him.  “Don’t be angry Papa.  Algrim came with me to guard me!  And see, we found Uncle Loki!”

D’urden gave Loki a quick, warm smile.  But he quickly turned his sterness back on his crafty son.  “Let’s get Loki home first.  But don’t think this gets you out of talking about this later.” He had just shooed the boys back into the ship when a voice rang out over the bridge.  

“STOP.”

The crowd that had gathered parted.  Odin strode through, suddenly sure and strong.  Thor followed right behind him.  But his eyes were not on his brothers and mother.  They were on his father.  And his hand was on Mjolnir.  

“If you leave, you will be considered an enemy of Asgard.”  He spoke to all of them it seemed ,but his focus was on Loki.  “You will be exiled.  You will no longer be a prince of Asgard.  Never able to step foot here again, never able to return while I am king.”

Loki did not speak.  He only nodded.  There was too much pain in speaking.  To Odin; so soon.  

“Come Frigga,” Odin ordered.

“No,”  Frigga answered.  And in her bearing was the reminder of who she was.  She was Wife.  She was Mother.  She was Queen.  “I am going to assure that Loki is being moved to where his brothers say he will be moved.  Then I am going to visit with my sons.  To see the homes and families that they had built for themselves.  Finally, I will see my grandchildren.”  A murmur rose up from the crowd.  The princes had children?  “I will return then.”

She turned, nothing more to say.

“Wait!”  Thor called out.  He jogged towards them, Mjolnir back on his belt.  Once he reached his brothers he stopped.  He looked to each of them in turn, then, finally, to Loki.  “I… Loki… I am sorry.  For the parts I played in this.  You don’t need to, but I hope… that one day… you’ll forgive me.”  He raised his arms as if to hug him then thought of it.  He laid his hands on the slim shoulders instead.  “Go, Loki.  Find somewhere that you will be happy.”

For a moment, the five brothers were complete.  “Don’t be a stranger Thor.  You are also welcome to come visit us.”  “Yes, for advice or practice or just a plain visit.”  “And remember that Mjolnir is not just for smashing.  She likes to build things too.”  A soft chuckle passed between them.  And then Thor stepped back to allow the ship to take off.  

Once everyone was settled in the ship they soon departed.  D’urden flew at the helm, keeping an eye on Asgard’s defenses as they flew past.  For once the Allfather’s word was kept and they were allowed to leave.  Once outside the realm the space that Yggdrasil occupied was revealed.  More dark ships like royal ship waited further down the branch to escort them to Svartalfheim.  Flying in the midst of them was a small flock of large, strange birds.  Though they differed in color Loki saw that their forms shimmered between the feathers of a bird and a body of flame.  “Phoenixes,” Baldur offered when he saw Loki and Sigyn looking on in awe, “they have a special bond with the Light Elf royal family.”

A particularly striking red bird drew close to the ship and it was then revealed that they carried people on their back.  Baldur left for the docking area and soon returned with someone.  By the way Baldur walked close to him, arm at the small of his back, gentle smile on his face, it could only be Nan’na.  Golden hair spilled down his back and gold was the color of his eyes.  He carried two tiny bundles in his arms, soft coos and tiny fingers appearing.  

Malekith kicked his legs in excitement, “Are those my cousins???”

“Yes,” Nan’na answered with a chuckle.  The young boy looked between Frigga and Loki and declared “I get to hold them after you two.”

Nan’na nodded in agreement and then approached Loki.  “I… I can hold them?”  He was barely given any time to protest before they were in his arms.  They were so small and delicate… and absolutely perfect.  They sleepily looked up at him, wondering who the stranger could be looking over them.  He hesitantly reached out to touch one of the girls and her hand closed around it.  She made a soft sound, somehow talking to her twin, and smiled.  Loki bit his lip hoping to keep the tears inside.  He had forgotten how much he loved babies.  They were new and innocent.  They did not have the preconceptions or influences of others about him.

He turned to look at Sigyn.  The man was cooing down at the girls, entertaining them and wiggling his fingers.  Of course, he knew that he had a long way to go.  In repairing relationships with his family, and repairing what he had done.  And most of all, he needed to come to terms with himself.   But he had given what he never thought he would wasting away in that cell:  a second chance.

So Loki leaned his head against Sigyn’s neck, and smiled.  


	13. Epilogue

Thor made sure to entire the room quietly.  It was calm and airy.  Despite the name of its people, Svartalfheim was not shrouded in darkness.  The sun, though short in the sky, had a gentler light and many of the plants grew in a darker shade.  What he had seen of the realm led him to decide that it suited Hodur.  It was calm and gentle yet hid a secret fierceness.  Loki sat near the veranda that led out to the palace gardens.  A book was nearby but lay forgotten on a small table.  His gaze was drawn outside and his hand was on the great swell of his belly.  

“Hello Loki.”

His brother turned.  There was no warm greeting.  Yet also there was no icy rebuke to be left alone.  The emerald eyes softened ever so slightly and he nodded in welcome.  He indicated a chair next to him and at the invitation Thor sat next to him.  

The bond between the two brothers had not repaired to what it had been before the original coronation.  There was a possibility that it would never be the same.  Yet Thor was slowly beginning to realize that he didn’t want what they had before.  He wanted a bond with Loki, as a brother and as a friend.  A true bond that wasn’t built on false expectations and lies.  

“How have you been?”

“Well…”  The answer is simple and straightforward.  No bite.  No hiding the truth behind a wall.  Of course, Loki’s nature would appear.  But they had been working towards speaking the truth with each other.  “I… I prefer it here.  It is… quiet when I want it to be.  And loud when I wish it to be.  I can practice my magic and my shapeshifting without whispers constantly at my heels.  And I no longer have an older brother to keep from destroying the throne.”

The two laughed.  “How is Grandmama Bestla doing?” Loki asked, shifting as the child kicked.

“She is an excellent teacher, as our Uncles Vili and Ve.”  Their grandmother and uncles had soon arrived after the brothers and Frigga had left Asgard.  They had come to meet Loki a few days after he had settled in.  Loki had been intimidated at first.  Though she was a great beauty even in old age and smaller than a male jotun, Bestla towered over him.  But one look in her eyes and one sweep of her arms showed her affection for him despite never meeting.  And in Vili and Ve were uncles he had never expected, and hints at the father that Odin had never become.  Vili was like him in size and somewhat resembled his own father Bor, with skin a pale blue relying his half jotun heritage.  Ve, however, was a tower; a full bull jotun with massive limbs and a thick skull.

Bestla had explained what she knew had happened.  She had wanted to come out of retirement and move back in Asgard to assist in the raising of a jotun child.  Odin, however, had resisted her help.  The child did not appear as a frost giant and had chameleoned his skin to resemble an aesir (common, she explained, of a newborn with shifting powers).  He had convinced her that he would bring Loki and her together once he was older.  She was to blame, she had admitted softly to Loki.  Odin was her oldest and the only one of her children to have children of his own.  There was a point of teaching one how to be a parent, and there was a point of overstepping or taking over.  He had seemed to do well with Tyr, his own firstborn, so she had not expected anything amiss.  And she had not heard, not known from her home in the high snowy peaks of Jotunheim, that Loki’s heritage had never been revealed.  

A few days after her arrival, Thor had appeared.  Hesitant, unsure.  He had stayed behind in Asgard, he said, to make sure their father would be okay.  And more than that was to prevent him from doing anything foolish.  He had made arrangements and left plans in place to ensure that Asgard and the people would be cared for in his absence.  Loki, through his ways, had heard the proclamation Thor had made the day he left.  He would always be Asgard’s prince and perhaps one day their king.  But to be that for his people, those who should be considered family by their leader, he first needed to know his own family.  He knew now there was much he could learn from his brothers and their families.  

The people had rejoiced.

And so, unadmitted, had Loki.  A simple snort and roll of the eyes.  Thor, the shining prince, trying to be so perfect…

But now he knew he wasn’t perfect.  

Things had been tense, true, between he and Loki.  Thor unsure how to repair the damage done and not even knowing what it was that he had done wrong at times.  Loki unwilling to point them out if Thor could not see.  But Tyr, Baldur, and Hodur were there.  The family was together.  And it was a family that knew that worries and tension were not something to be kept inside.  

As the family and the brothers bonded and grew, Odin withered.

He refused to leave Asgard.  He refused the cautious, tentative offers put by the brothers and their realms.  Would he not see them?  Could there not be some way for them to show that family did not need to conform to his word?  Though none of them wished it aloud they knew that their father and husband had the ultimatum of losing them if he did not try.  

It was Heimdall who had quietly come to ask Thor to return to Asgard for a short time.  Odin had gone into recluse.  Asgard was suddenly alone in the realms.  Asgard needed someone to guard and guide her.  It was then that Frigga and Thor, along with Bestla and her two youngest sons, had returned.  The giantess saw to her wandering son, and when he would not have her, she simply shrugged and allowed him to pout.  She and Vili and Ve then became advisors to Thor who acted in the king’s stead, gently guiding him with their knowledge.  Giving him reason when he needed it, affirming when he did right, and allowing him to make and learn from mistakes.

In the meantime, Loki had travelled the realms of his brothers.  He had first gone to Niflheim and Helheim, to see his sister-in-law.  Hela was happy to see him.  And she was unlike any woman he had ever met.  Few came to see her.  For who would want to visit the woman who was Queen of the Dead before her time?  Someone needed to fill the role and she had quietly accepted it as hers.  She was not a rotting corpse.  Nor was she half fleshed or half skeletonized.  She was only very pale under her dark hair and sometimes cast in shadow.  She was the calm quiet to Tyr’s furious fire.  

“I was glad,” she whispered, only to Loki, as they prepared to leave, “that you did not decide to come before your time.”  She did not say more than that.  And she did not need to.  She had seen, she had known, every time Loki had considered ending it all.  When the heritage he thought a monster was revealed.  When he had let go on the Bifrost.  When he had wandered aimlessly in the void.  Before his brothers had come to see him prison.  “I am very happy you have returned.  I never had a family before Tyr came to me.  And you are a special part of it.”

“And how is… Jane?”  Loki had to think to remember her name.  He had only met her a handful of times, mostly through the Destroyer.  The one time Thor had brought her with him she had slapped him across the face, declaring it was revenge for the city she had attacked.

Sigyn had nearly lopped off her head.  

“She is well.  Through the distance in the relationship can make things… strained.”  Thor worried at his hands, eyes out the window.  Loki knew he looked to the skies to see the faint twinkle that was her planet’s sun.  “I don’t know what to do at times…”

Loki knew what he meant.  And it revealed just how much Thor had grown.  “Whether to stay in Asgard, or to join her on Midgard.”  He watched as Thor nodded.  Loki thought as the child shifted again.  Would she never stop moving?  She hoped she was not practicing her shifting in there, or practicing to spar her first opponent.  “Would she come to Asgard perhaps to be your Queen?  Or your mortals, these… Avengers, offer you a permanence among them?”

Loki tried to feign ignorance, but the smile on Thor’s face as he looked up revealed he knew better.  “You know very well they have.”  There were many times where Loki had snuck down to Midgard, to the places of Earth he had damaged.  And there, in ways that would not cause concern and alarm, he tried to repair the havock he had wrought.  Buildings repaired here.  Remnants of the invasion so hard to dispose of moved.  A coded, well timed alert when a foe was on the horizon.  A flash of green protective magic when a blow might have otherwise hurt one of them.  A warning of what an unnamed someone had seen while in the void; this creature, this Thanos.  

So too Loki had been doing with Jotunheim.  Especially with the help of Bestla and his uncles.  Sigyn, bundled in furs, stuck to his side.  Both Loki’s heart and the baby fluttered at the thought of it.  The time when Loki had fully opened himself to the cold and his jotun nature.  He remembered the anxiety, remembered the fear.  Of what Sigyn must be or might be thinking once he saw that Loki was not who he thought he was.  But Sigyn… Sigyn had only smiled in his gentle way and taken Loki’s sapphire hand in his.  “You look lovely in blue… but you look just as lovely pale and in green… what matters is here, and here” Sigyn had said as he tapped Loki on the forehead and over the heart.

As he worked to restore Jotunheim, he had learned about his lost culture and heritage.  He had been the son of the late Laufey-King.  (He did not know what to think of that; that he had killed his blood father in some vain attempt to win his not-father).  No one had known but Laufey why Loki, practically newly born, had been placed in the temple.  It might have been for protection in a time of war.  It might have been to expose him to kinder fate than invaders.  Or it might have been to return him to the ice, so small and helpless.  

There were the creatures of Jotunheim, and then there were the Frost Giants.  Just as there were differences among the ordinary Asgardian and the Aesir, so there were differences among the Jotun.  Many were male.  Fewer but no less powerful were the giantesses like his grandmamma Bestla.  Then there were the ice maidens, hauntingly beautiful as the drifting snow, delicate and slim.  Then there were those, like Loki discovered himself to be, who were inbetween.  Intersexed.  A male who could carry children.  He had not seen it, not felt it, since his jotun form had never matured.  It had been part of the reason that Odin had sent Sigyn away and never revealed Loki’s blood.  It was one thing to knowingly perform the spell and hold the magic so a male could carry a child.  It was another for a male to be able to do so without.  

When Loki rose out of his thoughts, his saw that Thor’s eyes were on his belly.  His golden brother tried to feign interest elsewhere.  But his twitching hands and biting lip betrayed him.  “You may touch her if you are gentle.”

“Truly?”

“Yes, before I change my mind.”  Loki sighed softly.  Foolish Thor.  But he was just as foolish for he had to fight down the urge to stab Thor’s hand as it settled on the swell.  No.  Thor was not Odin.  He would not harm the child.  He would not come to take her away.  

This child, whom he was quite sure would be a daughter, had come after many years.  The family had been rather shocked that he and Sigyn had not married right after being reunited.  Instead, they had taken the time to reacquaint themselves with each other.  Sigyn went everywhere with Loki, and Loki went everywhere with Sigyn.  Sigyn remained home at times when Loki went to Midgard, and Loki remained behind when Sigyn went to train troops or help form better border patrols or convince someone that, no, seeking out a biglesnipe was not a good idea.  They had courted each other properly, filling in the time and gifts that had been taken with them.  Sigyn showed he would be a good provider and thought husband, and Loki showed he would be a fierce protector and gentle mate.  They had decided, after discovering Loki was with child, that they would make their home on Svartalfheim.

Loki knew that if he was near one his brothers, he would be allright.  And then there were the children.  Once Hodur had unraveled the spell that had locked Loki’s magic away he had become Malekith’s tutor.  The boy showed a great skill for magic, and it was a great comfort to teach him so openly.  He, Hodur, and Malekith together.  Not just he and Hodur as young boys, secreted away with only stolen knowledge to guide them.  One of Baldur’s twin girls, Asta, was beginning to show signs that she might too carry magic in her veins.  Word had come from Alfheim only the day before that Nan’na might once again be with child.  And Malekith already had a younger sibling of his own:  Rokkr, only recently steady enough on his feet to follow people everywhere.  Tyr and Hela were unable to have children of their own; it was the sacrifice Hela had made when she became Queen.  But they doted on their nieces and nephews, as well as the young spirits that would drift through Helheim before rebirth.  

And soon his and Sigyn’s precious child would be born into this tightly woven network.

Loki was glad of it.  He needed them.  His brothers.  Their familes.  And their children.  He could not turn out like Odin.  He would not.  But he had seen the differences in his brothers and how they raised their children.  Like the day they had first brought him to Svartalfheim.  Hodur and D’urden had taken their son aside discuss Malekith stealing the ship.  He had thought he had done it for a good reason, yes, but had he thought of what his actions might have done?  D’urden had sent Malekith to help repair the damage done to the ship when he had run it aground.  Hodur had sent him to speak the people who had worked the ship that day and their families.  Malekith had come home, whining at it all, that his punishment was unfair.  Hodur had quietly taken him to his knee.  Had Malekith thought about anyone else that day?  What if he had truly crashed the ship, or roused Asgard’s defenses so they had shot it down on sight.  Many, Malekith and Algrim included, might have been injured or worse.  What of the people in their lives, what of the wives, husbands, children, and families waiting at home?  Hodur had hastily wiped away his own tears, revealing his fear at the thought of losing a child.  

It still wasn’t fair, Malekith said quietly, but greater reluctance than before.  None of that had actually happened.  And what if it had?, Hodur countered.  Just because he didn’t think it could happen didn’t mean it might and could.  Did that keep him from being accountable?  What if it had been another way, and another time, D’urden offered.  A time where a prince could do nothing wrong while another took his punishment in his place.  How would he feel if everytime he did something wrong or dangerous, Algrim was whipped in his stead?

Malekith’s eyes had grown wide.  They did not mean to frighten him.  They did not want to scare him into submission, they told him.  He was young.  He would make mistakes.  Even adults made mistakes.  But as his fathers, it was their duty to both protect their son while shaping him into his own person.  They just want Malekith to know and remember that.  

Loki only hoped he and Sigyn could do right by their child.  

As if summoned at a thought, Sigyn walked into the room.  Stone dust was on his hands and a smudge of something was across his nose.  He always seemed to get something there while he was building.  In one hand was a tall glass of cool water, a slice of fruit on the rim.  Just what Loki craved.  He set it on the table before crouching next to the chair to give him a kiss.  He remained there, hand massaging Loki’s back as he shifted in the chair.  There was no need for words between them at times.  They knew each other well.  But it was still good to see the glance he had given Loki, asking if Thor was a pest.  No, Loki replied as a kiss to Sigyn’s dusty hand.  

Thor gave a breathless laugh as the child gave a particularly rigorous kick against the womb.  He finally drew his hand away, looking up with excitement.  “She’ll be walking before she crawls!  Then you will have to chase after someone who is always disappearing!”  The two shared a laugh, memories of young childhood warm at the surface.  “Perhaps it is good Jane and I will not have children of our own at the moment.  I think every kick would be a spark if they were to carry my lightning.”

“Perhaps,” Loki said with a smile.  

“But I think anyone would be blessed to be with our family now.  However wild, and however imperfect.”  And he happily turned to Sigyn and claimed his husband.  A gentle kiss.  A wild kiss.  An act where he finally allowed his heart, so long locked and walled away, to fly freely.  

 

Then, without a sound or a gasp, Loki drew back.

 

“I think the water just broke.”

 

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TADAH!
> 
> So ends The Bonds of Brothers. 
> 
> I think I wanted to get in here everything I wanted. Its unlikely, but I might go back and do edits here and there. 
> 
> However, just as some of my readers have done/pointed out, I've quite fallen in love with the little version/universe that came about out of the prompt. However, I am not sure if to continue and where to take it. I have already posted a prompt over on norsekink seeing if anyone would like to write (or inspire me to write) scenes from the boys childhood since, while I would have liked to explore, ended up not fitting the story (http://norsekink.livejournal.com/12132.html?thread=30699876#t30699876) That would make it a prequel; I'd love to see what people would come up with or inspire me to do. 
> 
> There has also been a request for some sort of sequel. This was before the epilogue was posted but I do also like the sound of it. I just, however, have no idea where to go. So feel very free to leave ideas in the comments or link over/post a prompt on the norse kinkmeme!


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